I read in my local sunday paper recently (The Herald Journal) that a recent poll showed that 55% of Mormons in Utah agree with their church leaders that homosexuality is not natural, but is a choice that can be "cured". The attempt to "cure" gays has been tried in the church before. A program of electroshock and vomit aversion therapy was run at BYU during the 70's and 80's. The church denies their involvment in this program.

There have been many documentaries about these programs and the people who endured them recently. So I decided to make a video where I bring them together to let them tell their stories once again. These stories, recorded by different people at different times for different projects, are consistent with each other. This gives credibility to their claims, and discredit the church's denials.

The fruits of that program were a rash of suicides at BYU. The teachings of the church have created a culter of homophobia that exists in the church today. Currently Utah leads the nation in the suicide rate for youths. A disproportional number of them have some kind of same sex attraction.

I hope that this video will help to increase the understanding of the plight of Mormon gays and help the LDS community become more loving and tolerant of their gay brothers and sisters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A8HRqQ4NgY (part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGdjIjpCSPM (part 2)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2010 01:11PM by dealingwithit.

But really, do they honestly think the rest of the world doesn't know who runs BYU? It's got a Mormon "honor" code.

Rebeckah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But really, do they honestly think the rest of the
> world doesn't know who runs BYU? It's got a Mormon
> "honor" code.

Anyone who denies that the church was involved in this program needs to ask themselves the following. "Could a program like this be able to be run at BYU for 15 years or so, without having the approval of the church?"

As I posted here, the woman--yes, a woman--who volunteered she'd undergone it (when I innocently asked if the person she'd sent inside for my fare was here partner)--was barely into her 30's...

This program ran well into the 90's...

And it wasn't any made-up story; she was fairly tipsy and after she said to me, "They shocked me to try to get me to change," and I asked if this was a BYU, she replied yes and added they'd strapped electrodes to her private parts, shown her pictures of nude women, and shocked her when she responded...

Until the LDS church leadership teaches tolerance for those of us who've investgated actual history, they're simply another monolithic cult in my book.

Here is a thought. Pornography is against the Honor code at BYU. So the people who ran this program made these people break the honor code during their "therapy" by making them watch porn. This means that they were guilty of obtaining and distributing porn at BYU to BYU students, thereby making them guilty of breaking the Honor Code.

Shouldn't the directors of the program be held to the same standard as anyone else at BYU who breaks the code?

Nice videos.

Just where did they get their gay porn? I cannot imagine tha they produced it, so they had to buy it. At that point, they are supporting the pornography industry, aren't they?

I wonder if it would be possible for those who went through the program to sue BYU for the damage that it caused them.

A. Dean Byrd who is behind a lot of the so-called therapy is still promoting it but not at BYU of course. He wrote "When a Loved One Struggles with Same-sex Attraction." I don't believe he was directly involved in aversion therapy at BYU.

Getting documentation that aversion therapy ever occurred at BYU would be very difficult.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2010 07:35PM by verdacht.

verdacht Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A. Dean Byrd who is behind a lot of the so-called
> therapy is still promoting it but not at BYU of
> course. He wrote "When a Loved One Struggles
> with Same-sex Attraction." I don't believe he was
> directly involved in aversion therapy at BYU.
>
> Getting documentation that aversion therapy ever
> occurred at BYU would be very difficult.


Dr. Robert Card was also behind it. You are right about the cover up. The records kept were either destroyed or are locked up really securely I imagine.

that this stuff was going on during the four years I spent at BYU. Dean Byrd and Robert Card should have electrodes attached to their Johnson and have them watch straight porn. They could be zapped every time they get turned on- I'm sure they could eventually turn them into homosexuals! This is of course as absurd as what they were trying to do. It is inconceivable that otherwise intelligent, educated individuals could think they could change someone's basic nature.

I have been thinking long and hard about this.

the much bigger issue is parents sending their children into a room with a used car salesman who will ask said son or daughter if they MMMMMMM

in the rest of the real world, (ROW) in science speak, this is criminal activity.

So man up RfM. Are you willing to go on video and out yourself like the Catholic victims did?

the only way to get to 100th monkey and make this an issue is for exmos to go on camera and say that

some insurance salesman in a closed room asked me if I MMMMMMMMMMMM

and my parents allowed it to happen.

Until exmos indict their parents

this will never get traction.

So ExMos.

you can so stop this now, or go to sleep knowing that your nieces and nephews are getting raped tonight.

Sleep well. Was it good for you?

Scooter Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------->
> some insurance salesman in a closed room asked me
> if I MMMMMMMMMMMM
>
> and my parents allowed it to happen.
>
> Until exmos indict their parents
>
> this will never get traction.

TBM parents are conditioned to think that this is normal. Most of them probably did the same when they were young, and hence it is no big deal to them. They are just running on automatic and it never occurs to them to stop and think about exactly what they are doing by placing their underage kids in this type of situation.

This is the problem with the group think mentality IMO. By conditioning people not to think or question, you can easily get good people to do irresponsible to horrible things.

Question everything

Or the bishop can just turn around and say it never happend and the little kid is lyeing up to an adult is lyeing. Theres no one else in that room with you and your all on your own with the same guy that let his kids push you down a flight of stairs because they are supposedly sweet boys. This man suposedly called by god to make you squirm because suffering gets you into heaven.

Thats going to be hell to get over for many women. How many of them even remember it? How many do you think might have blocked it out?

What do the remaining 45% think? I believe that's even more important.

ExMormonRon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What do the remaining 45% think? I believe that's
> even more important.

In the poll, they say that overall 44% agreed, 31% disagreed, and 25% did not know. For Mormons 55% agreed, but it does not say anything about the other 45%.

I think it would be safe to assume that this 45% would be split in a similar ratio amoung the mormons as it was overall since the mormons influenced the poll so heavily. My guess is that 25% disagreed and that 20% did not know.

So about 25% of Mormons disagree with the statments of President Packer that he gave in conference. That is a start.

The info about the breakout of how LDS feel about gays being able to change is there but you sorta have to put it together.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50600673-76/sex-attractions-percent-gay.html.csp

The breakout for LDS members is:

55% Believe that gays can change their sexual orientation
30% are not sure
15% believe that gays can not change their sexual orientation.

I personally believe that the numbers 10 years ago would have been vastly different with many more LDS members believing that gays could change. On numbers like these, I aways like to see the trends over time. For example, if 10 years ago, the 75% of LDS members thought gays could change their orientation, the current numbers would be very good news, showing a marked shift in the views of LDS membership.

Still with 45% of LDS not willing to toe the line on this issue, the LDS leadership needs to be careful or risk alienating a large portion of their membership.