Inverts, Perverts, and Converts: Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy and Liability
![handle is hein.journals/bupi8 and id is 237 raw text is: ARTICLES
INVERTS, PERVERTS, AND CONVERTS: SEXUAL
ORIENTATION CONVERSION THERAPY AND LIABILITY
LAURA A. GANS*
Homosexuality distorts the natural bond of friendship that would naturally
unite persons of the same sex. It works against society's essential male/fe-
male design and family unit. Yet today children from kindergarten through
college are being taught in school that homosexuality is nothing but a nor-
mal, healthy option. It is our policy as psychoanalytically-informed individ-
uals to dispel the misinformation that surrounds the subject of homosexual-
ity. Our task is to discuss issues misrepresented by social-activist groups
who have portrayed sexual deviancy as a normal way of life. We seek to
further the research and treatment of this disorder, while protecting the pa-
tient's right to treatment.'
I. INTRODUCTION
While the above text reads as though it were resurrected from psychiatry's an-
tediluvian days, it is actually excerpted from the current literature of NARTH,2
National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).
NARTH, founded in 1992, is a California-based organization that holds itself out
as a Non-Profit Psychoanalytic, Educational Organization Dedicated to Re-
search, Therapy and Prevention of Homosexuality.3
* J.D., City University of New York School of Law, 1998. I would like to extend my
great thanks to Professor Ruthann Robson for her vision, encouragement, and dedication.
Special thanks to Professor Paula E. Berg for her insight and assistance. I would also like
to express my love and appreciation to R.H., M.H., and family for their support.
Excerpted from the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality
(NARTH), Statement of Policy (visited Mar. 20, 1997) <http://www.narth.com/menus/
statement.html.> [hereinafter NARTH].
The terms invert and pervert served as popular labels for gays and lesbians dur-
ing the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. See, e.g., JONATHAN N. KATz, GAY
AMERICAN HISTORY: LESBIANS AND GAY MEN IN THE U.S.A. 138 (ed. rev. 1992) (present-
ing excerpts from scientific writings from 1895: [wle can hardly cure the inverts and
from 1899: [t]he sexual perversions that have been modified [include] unnatural passion
for persons of the same sex). Id. at 145. See also LILLIAN FADERMAN, ODD GIRLS AND
TWILIGHT LOVERS: A HISTORY OF LESBIAN LIFE IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA 59
(1991) (Already by 1890 some female 'inverts' had joined the sexual underworld.).
The term convert refers to the gay or lesbian who claims to have been changed to het-
erosexuality through conversion therapy.
2 See id.
3 Id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/bupi8&div=19&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Inverts, Perverts, and Converts: Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy and Liability
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