Controversial Leader of 'Ex-Gay' Therapy Group Steps Down as Criticism Mounts
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Bows Out After Racist Ideology Discovered On Web Site
12/7/2006 10:41:00 AM
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Truth Wins Out expressed satisfaction today in learning that Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, President of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has stepped down amid a cloud of controversy stemming from a polemic justifying slavery found on the group's Web site. The Encino-based NARTH had also taken heat in recent months for advocating child abuse against gender variant children.
"NARTH was a sinking ship and they had no choice but to throw their captain overboard," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "The group was quickly becoming the Mel Gibson of the 'ex-gay' world and this move was NARTH's desperate way of saying, 'timeout, we are going to rehab.' However, it may be too late, as no spin can erase their racist and anti-gay sin."
Trouble began mounting for Nicolosi after Canadian doctor Joseph Berger, who serves on NARTH's "Scientific Advisory Board" wrote on the organization's website that gender variant children should be sent to school in opposite-sex clothing so they can be "ridiculed" into conforming.
But criticism of NARTH reached a crescendo after "Scientific Advisory Board" member, Dr. Gerald Schoenewolf, penned a polemic on the group's website that seemed to justify slavery and said that African-Americans taken away in chains on slave ships "were in many ways better off than they had been in Africa."
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http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=77223I'm Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, president of NARTH.
I'd like to tell you why I stand up for what I believe.
We live in a culture where tolerance, diversity, and the right to define oneself are valued very highly. Today, people who want to live their lives as "gay" are free to do so. That's their right.
But there's another sexual minority I'd like to tell you about.
These are the men and women who -- despite having some homosexual feelings -- believe that humanity was designed to be heterosexual.
(snip/...)
http://www.narth.com/docs/joe-why.html