The Southern Poverty Law Center claimed another win this week in its ongoing lawsuit against a New Jersey-based antigay conversion-therapy organization.
Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. on Tuesday ruled that the defendant, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act when it claimed that homosexuality was a curable “mental illness,” “disease” or “disorder,” and found that it is fraudulent for conversion therapists to make such a claim.
The ruling marks the first time a court has found that labeling homosexuality as curable is fraud, which advocates say helps to chip away at opponents’ harmful claims that being gay is a choice.
“This ruling is monumental and devastating to the conversion therapy industry,” said David Dinielli, SPLC deputy legal director, in a statement. “For the first time, a court has ruled that it is fraudulent as a matter of law for conversion therapists to tell clients that they have a mental disorder that can be cured. This is the principal lie the conversion-therapy industry uses throughout the country to peddle its quackery to vulnerable clients. Gay people don’t need to be cured, and we are thrilled that the court has recognized this.”
Bariso also found that JONAH further violated the CFA when it included specific “success” statistics in advertising or selling its conversion-therapy services. According to Bariso’s court order, there is no factual basis for calculating such statistics.
Tuesday’s decision is the second blow to JONAH and conversion-therapy proponents’ case this month. Last week, Bariso also denied conversion-therapy “experts” from testifying as witnesses in the case because he considered their “expertise” unscientific and to rest on the false premise that homosexuality is a disorder.
Michael Ferguson, et al., v. JONAH, et al. was filed by SPLC in November 2012 and co-counsel Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP and Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC on behalf of former JONAH clients and two parents of former clients. The suit claims, among other things, that JONAH used deceptive practices to lure plaintiffs into expensive conversion-therapy services.
In 2013, New Jersey became the second state, after California, to pass legislation preventing mental-health professionals from administering conversion therapy to minors.