Mr. Downing Is Lying And Playing Head Games With Former Clients To Save His Career, Asserts TWO
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) challenged scandalized “ex-gay” life coach Alan Downing (pictured) to take a lie detector test and a No Lie MRI today, after he denied in The Jewish Week that he engaged in sexual misconduct with two male clients. Former Downng patients, Ben Unger and Chaim Levin, made allegations of impropriety in a Truth Wins Out video released last week that has more than 11,000 views. They allege that during individual therapy sessions, Downing made them undress in front of a mirror and touch their bodies while the significantly older therapist watched.
“Regarding the video recently posted by two men identifying themselves as former clients of mine, I deny the allegations of malicious intent that are made in this video,” Downing asserted in a written statement to The Jewish Week. “I also emphatically deny the falsehoods being promulgated by activists and commentators; their accusations are not true. I am deeply concerned about the use of these young men to advance a political agenda, and the impact this publicity will have on them. I plead with those who choose to use them in this way to put their well being ahead of political goals.”
In light of his public denial, Truth Wins Out offered to pay for both a polygraph and a No Lie MRI for Downing, so he can prove his alleged innocence. When taking a No Lie MRI, if a person speaks a mistruth, a portion of the brain lights up on a scanner.
“We believe that Alan Downing is not telling the truth and that his brain would light up like a Menorah if he took a No Lie MRI,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We are offing the test to Downing any time and on our dime. So far he has refused our request because, perhaps, he is consumed by guilt.”
“It is highly unethical for Downing to play head games with his victims and pretend he cares about their well-being,” continued TWO’s Besen. “The fact is, he harmed his clients when he acted inappropriately and asked them to strip in his office. He should be offering apologies instead of obfuscation.”
Tellingly, when The Jewish Week asked Downing to describe the therapy sessions, he elected to remain silent. The man who referred Unger and Levin to Downing, Arthur Abba Goldberg, co-founder of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), defended the bizarre practices of Downing, essentially saying that “fondle therapy” and “therapeutic lap dances” are misunderstood.
“The video misrepresents common therapeutic techniques used by many types of practitioners who work with men with body image wounds and shame; they are often very successful.”
“No doubt these peculiar and dangerous practices are common for JONAH, but they are rejected by all respected mental health associations,” said TWO’s Besen. “Goldberg’s ‘quack defense’ lacks credibility and is not backed by science.”
Goldberg, a Wall Street criminal mastermind, was convicted in 1987 of “fraud of spectacular scope”. Upon completing parole, Goldberg secretly reinvented himself as a moral leader who “cures” gay and lesbian people. Known as “Abba Dabba Do” in the financial world, Goldberg was sentenced to 18 months in jail for bilking poor communities with complicated bond schemes and served six months in prison.
Downing, who admits he is still attracted to men, was a major player in the “ex-gay” industry and a practitioner of so-called “reparative therapy”. He is the lead therapist for Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) and – until the scandal broke — was listed on the People Can Change website as a “Senior Trainer” for Journey into Manhood, which is a controversial “ex-gay” backwoods retreat designed to supposedly make gay men more masculine.
In Truth Wins Out’s illuminating video, Unger and Levin discuss what occurred in Downing’s office.
“He was encouraging me, ‘it’s okay Ben, you can take your shirt off’…here was a man that was much older than me, and I was around 20,” said Ben Unger, a former client of Alan Downing. “At that point, I was just staring at a mirror with my shirt off and he was right behind me staring at the mirror with me at my body. Then telling me to look at my body and feel my body. It was weird.”
“While I was standing there without my clothes on, he asked me to touch my genitals,” says former Downing client Chaim Levin. “Once again, I communicated that I was not comfortable with it. And he was like, you know, ‘just feel yourself. Just feel it for a second. So, you can grasp your masculinity physically.’”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights religious extremism. TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes their leaders as charlatans. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
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May I suggest that TWO FIRST PROVIDE LIE DETECTOR TESTS FOR HIS ACCUSERS?
Seems this would further force his hand to face the charges with their successfully completed tests, no?
I’m just saying; seems obvious tact here to route him out.
MHill
Given the damage to his reputation by these accusations, he would sue, if the allegations were false. He has done no such thing. He hasn’t even implied it.
Two people have complained. That means that there are probably exponentially more people out there who had the same things done to them. He knows that if he sued, others would come out of the woodwork saying, “But he did the same thing to me!”
John:
I beg them to sue and pray every night they will. First thing we would do is counter sue.
That would open up their records and we would finally see the full extent of the damage they have caused. We could put these charlatans and criminals on the stand and let them defend fondle therapy and therapeutic lap dances. We would dismantle their pernicious lies.
FYI: We have several more clients who would back us up in court. In essence, we’d clean their clock and likely bring down JONAH, Journey into Manhood, People Can Change, and possibly even NARTH.
So, please ex-gays — sue us.
I’ve often said that lawsuits are the best way to settle so much of this. Like the Krazy Khristian Kounselor girl just lost her suit. the judge said charges of rleigous discimination were nonsense.
Get the ex-anti gay industry to sue, and then, as in the prop 8 trial, show in a ocurt of law that they have nothing on their side.
I agree Ben. Ex-gay programs are afraid of the sunlight because the entire industry is a fraud. It is a cesspool of suicides, depression and despair. It is full of dysfunctional quacks who practice bizarre or even dangerous techniques.
They will not sue because they do not want the world to see the nauseating and horrifying truth.
Horny Meister was apparently concerned about the welfare of the two accusers. He said, “…and the impact this publicity will have on them.”
That was nice. But I think he should be concerned about the publicity on him. I think this is a classic example of denial by use of tactics such as diversion. It’s not about me…its about this, and that, and the poor troubled youth who will get hurt. It’s not about me. Shifting the attention from this to that was Reker’s strategy, i.e., he was lifting my luggage.
It is obvious that so-called “ex-gay” therapy is false when its most enthusiastic supporters are those with a decidedly homophobic bent and a strong motivation to embrace bigotry. In this case, it’s the Orthodox community, but regardless of whether it’s Christian fundamentalists or Orthodox Jews, it is clear that the only people who support this type of foolishness are those who consider science to be secondary to their personal religious beliefs, whims and desires.
I agree with the first comment. Get the VICTIMS to agree to a lie detector or No-Lie MRI.
This will FORCE a response from Downing and his big bag of b******t.
Seriously, Wayne. I think that’s a good point. These kids don’t really have any reason to lie about this, it serves their lives in no way to lie, so when their tests come back showing them to be truthful, doesn’t that force Downing and his ‘organization’ to respond in some way???
You know what would help? This. :)
I’m not sure what you’d test about Downing’s honesty with a a lie detector or MRI, or ouija board or tea-leaves for that matter. As far as I read he hasn’t actually denied the bizarre nudey pants-down goings-on in his office… merely that he didn’t do it with “malicious intent”. Oh and Teh Gays are lying about him, or something.
Well, OK, Alan Downing. I can accept that. Ignorant and manipulative and unethical doesn’t equal malicious, even if they all end up causing harm to conflicted people.
What say we all just agree you did it with “sleazy intent” instead?
[...] of business decades ago. Interestingly, for all of their bravado, “ex-gay” activists refuse to take physical tests, such as the No Lie MRI, to prove they have changed their attractions. If they want the quote marks [...]