Brazilian Judge Allows Gay Reparative Therapy



BRASÍLIA, Brazil (ChurchMilitant.com) - A federal judge in Brazil is ruling homosexuality a disease, allowing the banned practice of reparative therapy.
Judge Waldemar Cláudio de Carvalho was ruling in the case of Rozangela Justino, a Christian psychologist who sought to use reparative therapy for her patients who wanted to overcome homosexuality. Her license was revoked in 2016. 
The Federal Council of Psychology, which lobbied to have reparative therapy banned in 1999, claimsthe ruling "represents a violation of human rights and has no scientific basis."

The 1999 law dictates "psychologists shall not collaborate in events or services offering treatment and cure for homosexuality," adding, "psychologists will neither pronounce nor participate in public speeches, in the mass media, reinforcing social prejudice related to homosexuals as pursuing any kind of psychological disorder."
In the United States, reparative therapy is banned in five states and Washington D.C.
A 2015 report, "Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth" was used by the Obama administration to promote legislation banning reparative therapy, calling it coercive, harmful and "should not be part of behavioral health treatment." 
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi was a leader in reparative therapy before his death and president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and in 2015 said, "Homosexuality is not a sexual problem. It is a gender identity problem."

He continued, "Homosexuality is not about sex. It is about a person's sense of himself, about his relationships, how he forms and establishes relationships, his self-identity, his self-image, personal shame, his ability to sustain intimacy." He also added, "Homosexual behavior is always prompted by an inner sense of emptiness."
Self-proclaimed Catholic and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was instrumental in banning reparative therapy in the state.
Arthur Goldberg, the founder of reparative therapy service JONAH, was forced to shut down the New Jersey-based organization and accused of consumer fraud by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
During a court trial to determine the fate of JONAH, the court refused to allow Goldberg to use expert witnesses, claiming that anybody believing sexual orientation can change is behind the times, comparing them to people who believe the earth is flat.
Goldberg went on to found the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA), which promotes the "return of our culture to one in which more traditional universal moral values are understood and followed."
The Catholic European nation of Malta is the first to outright ban reparative therapy.