The following op-ed by William Meyer, a clinical social worker, appeared in the Thursday, March 4 edition of Durham Herald.

Meyer joined Faith In America as a supporter after hearing founder Mitchell Gold talking about his book CRISIS on a PBS radio show in December. He recently met with Mitchell to discuss our work and a presentation he has developed as a clinical social worker that addresses the topic of “prejudice masquerading as science”.

Meyer has served on the faculty of North Carolina’s Duke University in the Department of Psychiatry for nearly 30 years. Last spring, he made a presentation at the Duke Grand Rounds weekly lecture series, entitled, “On the diagnosis and ‘treatment’ of homosexuality: When prejudice masquerades as science.” In the presentation, he detailed much of the history (up to the present) of the relationship between mental health professions and homosexuality to demonstrate how professional organizations have hurt people and have been used to promulgate social bigotry.

Last August, he received an invitation to present on this topic before the U.S. Army’s Department of Psychiatry.

Since then, he has presented for Grand Rounds in Departments of Psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in N.Y.; Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey; the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and the Departments of Psychiatry at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and Virginia Commonwealth University; before a group of 300 mental health professionals in Pinehurst, N.C.; the North Carolina Chapter of the American Psychological Association in Charlotte, N.C.; and the N.C.Society for Clinical Social Workers.

Conversion therapy: When the ‘cure’ becomes a curse

Prejudice and violence. We recognize it at its extremes.

We recoiled when we recently learned that the Ugandan parliament had proposed a bill that could put people to death for being homosexual. Many are unaware that the death penalty for homosexual acts already exists in seven other countries. Several years ago we were reminded of this fact by an AP photo of two slender young men, not much more than boys, really, as ropes were being placed over their heads in Iran. Fortunately, there were blindfolds over their faces, so we didn’t have to look them in the eyes.

Today, homosexuality remains a crime in 93 countries. In 2003, United States courts declared that private consensual behavior between adults was not a crime. In England, anti-sodomy laws were repealed in 1967.

Prior to this, one Brit who was found guilty in 1952 was code-breaker Allan Turing, a man some consider to be the father of computer science. Turing, like Oscar Wilde many years prior, was convicted of gross indecency.

Unlike Wilde, Turing was given a choice about his punishment and he chose chemical castration over imprisonment. Turing became so despondent about the outcome of these treatments that he took his life at the tender age of 42. Several months ago, Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologized.

“It is no exaggeration to say that, without [Turing's] outstanding contribution, the history of the Second World War could have been very different,” he said. “…I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted, as he was convicted, under homophobic laws, were treated terribly.”

While homosexuality is no longer a crime, it was for many years considered a mental illness.

In the late 1960s and early ’70s, the scientific community joined forces with gay-rights activists to compel the American Psychiatric Association to examine how their nomenclature was hurting people.

When the APA classified homosexuality as mental illness, they were allowing their professional organization to sanction what was little more than social prejudice.

In 1973, homosexuality as a category of mental illness was officially deleted from the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual, the American bible of psychiatry.

This year, I have been giving lectures to departments of psychiatry about how mental health providers have historically treated homosexuals who came for help. Most in attendance have been shocked and then saddened when they learn that in America and Great Britain, up through the early 1970s, psychiatrists and psychologists sometimes used electric shocks and nausea-inducing substances in an ill-fated effort to convert gay men and women into becoming straight.

In addition, many patients spent years and enormous sums of money in psychoanalysis and intensive psychotherapy with the hope that such sacrifices would “cure” them of same-sex attraction. Well-known practitioners of these treatments proclaimed cures by the hundreds and even thousands. Virtually every such report — including a now wholly discredited book by the venerated William Masters and Virginia Johnson — was found to be unsubstantiated, non-replicable and fraudulent.

Today in America, we have advanced to the next rung of civilization. Now that gays and lesbians are no longer criminals and no longer officially sick, large segments of our society still regard them as sinners in need of healing and redemption. A number of organizations encourage people with same-sex orientation to seek treatment through what has variously been called “conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy.”

Every major professional health and mental health organization denounces such therapies and clearly states that therapeutic attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation are not only ineffective, but carry significant potential for harm. Yet, this has not stopped many religious leaders and their parishioners from foisting such treatments on vulnerable individuals who feel guilt-ridden or confused about their feelings.

While they are often sincere in their attempt to help, I doubt they would continue such efforts if they really knew the costs.

Imagine the emotional and psychological effect on teenagers who are told that if they act on their feelings then they have committed “an abomination” — therefore they must deny who they are, condemn themselves for what they feel and live with the shame of what they cannot change. Is it any wonder that suicide and suicide attempts remain at such high levels for gay youths?

It matters not, if punishment or condemnation is inflicted by the state, the doctors or representatives of the church. The consequences of such actions rest on all who inflict such harm and all should be called upon to atone for its damaging effects and the lives that are taken — even among those who believe they are delivering a message of holiness.

William S. Meyer, MSW, is an associate clinical professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Ob/Gyn at the Duke University Medical Center.

william.meyer@duke.edu