FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 19, 2010
Contact: Wayne Besen, TWO Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Therapist Alan Downing, A Key Figure In JONAH and People Can Change, Allegedly Made Clients Get Naked And Touch Genitals
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) released an exclusive video statement today from two former clients of “ex-gay” life coach Alan Downing. The clients, Ben Unger and Chaim Levin, alleged that during individual therapy sessions, Downing (pictured) made them undress in front of a mirror and touch their bodies while the significantly older therapist watched. Unger and Levin call the sessions a “psychological striptease” and believe they were harmed by what they consider unprofessional behavior and sexual misconduct.
Downing, who admits he is still attracted to men, is 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 is 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.
“These dysfunctional, unscientific programs are rife with sexual impropriety and need to be shut down,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Too often, repressed ‘ex-gay’ quacks pretend they are trying to get into your head when they are really trying to get into your pants. They call what they do reparative therapy, but it’s more like re-perv-ative therapy.”
“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.’”
“If you believe having a closeted gay therapist undressing clients makes one straight, than you’ll believe that playing doctor makes one a brain surgeon,” said TWO’s Besen. “The concept is both outrageous and ridiculous and these sick, exploitative practices should be abandoned immediately.”
JONAH was co-founded by Arthur Abba Goldberg, a Wall Street criminal mastermind who 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.
“Given the sordid history of JONAH, this latest scandal is not too surprising,” said TWO’s Besen. “This is an unscrupulous organization of high moral turpitude that has few qualms about harming desperate and vulnerable clients. This group has consistently been tied to bizarre, sexually suggestive methods that are unsettling, dangerous and ineffective.”
Journey into Manhood, where Downing is a counselor, exhibits similar eyebrow raising techniques. Writer Ted Cox infiltrated this peculiar program and was surprised to find what he called, “homoerotic exercises” and a cabin that he called “The Cuddle Room” because it was a space where supposedly “ex-gay” men gave each other inappropriate massages.
“Apparently some of the guys in one cabin threw their mattresses into the middle of the room and had an all-night holding session,” said one of the men attending the Journey into Manhood session, according to Cox’s article.
“How ironic that therapists that claim to cure homosexuals keep ending up naked with their gay clients,” said TWO’s Besen. “Such lurid exploitation has moved from a disconcerting pattern to a full-blown trend and it needs to be investigated by the authorities.”
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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If this is a new alternative to homosexuality, then it’s very inferior to the old tried and tested homosexuality. The old wine is better than the new.
Comment by William — July 19, 2010 @ 8:41 am
Really, those so called ex-gays have a HUGE arsenal of methods to get their own gay fix. Really, this is only about finding an alternative way to deal with their own gay feelings for those emotional abusive assholes.
Comment by Kim — July 19, 2010 @ 9:54 am
[...] to a statement from Truth Wins Out: Downing, who admits he is still attracted to men, is a major player in the “ex-gay” industry [...]
Pingback by Box Turtle Bulletin » Ex-Gay “Life Coach” Accused of Sexual Impropriety — July 19, 2010 @ 10:49 am
This is like letting the fox guard the henhouse.
Comment by ETownCanuck — July 19, 2010 @ 11:07 am
Wow.. I wish I had said that Etown, I can’t think of a more appropriate situation for that phrase than this BS…
Comment by Eric — July 19, 2010 @ 11:35 am
Interesting that Downing bills himself as a “life coach” which requires absolutely no training or certification. They can find someone who wants help or who simply feels vulnerable, and play puppet master.
If reparative or conversion therapy (now being called “sexual orientation reassignment therapy”, or SORT, by some) worked, why wouldn’t NARTH or some other group create a certification for coaches or therapists? To have credibility, they would need to define a body of knowledge, demonstrate empirical support for efficacy, promulgate a code of ethics, develop a training curriculum, and a testing process. Why, oh why, not do this?
We are left to wonder. In the meantime, any perv can direct any vulnerable young person to engage in sexualized behavior, and the authorities give it a pass if the claimed goal is making the patient/client straight. Sick. Downright gut puke sick.
Comment by Karen — July 19, 2010 @ 11:36 am
I’m never surprised by things like this. Sexual repression always leads to odd, abusive behavior.
Comment by Daniel — July 19, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
Wayne congratulations on breaking this scandal. What a shame that young gay kids (who are vulnerable and have no support) are taken advantage of by shameless people like Alan Downing who are willing to exploit these youth in their most vulnerable hour.
The deceptive idea that a gay man could change his sexual orientation is bad enough, it’s results most tragic, but the notion that these kids are told to remove their clothes in front of a mirror and even touch themselves sexually is beyond the pale.
Wayne, you have helped ensure that some vulnerable gay teenagers will not fall for this chicanery. It is a shame that, in the year 2010, gay youth are still driven to this precipice of deaperation. You actions take them out of the valley of death and plant their feet on higher ground. Again, congratulations.
Comment by Chris L. — July 19, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
I hope Unger and the others sue this guy and other ‘therapists’ like him for everything they can get. Better yet, the government should do it’s job, prosecute these guys and put them in jail where they belong.
Comment by Gary (NJ) — July 19, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
ps..Downing is totally a sex offender, and should be registered and adjudicated as such.
Comment by Gary (NJ) — July 19, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
The list is endless. Reker, Haggard, Foley, Barnes, Craig, etc etc.
BTW EXodus head Don Schiermerer is one of the anything but Christians heading the attempt to pass the gay genocide bill in Uganda.
While his former assistant Don busse left the group a couple years ago to go marry his male partner. And tgold the truth.
As Gobbels said. Tell a lie often enough and outrageous enough, and it will be seen as the truth.
At least Gobbels had the decency to crunch a vial of cyanide when the russians were at the door in early may 1945 in Berlin.
I’m Jewish, but I’d give this freak to Hamas in a second – long with a video camera. The price – the tape of him getting what he really wanted from those randy arabs, before they solved our problem.
Politics does make strange bedfellowsz
Comment by SteveMD2 — July 19, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
[...] on the heels of Family Research Council’s George Rekers scandal, Truth Wins Out has a new video exposing how a major figure in the so-called ex-gay movement forced his male clients [...]
Pingback by Wonk Room » ‘Ex-Gay’ Life Coach Forced Patients To Touch Themselves — July 19, 2010 @ 3:42 pm
[...] took the JONAH scandal to Wonkette, because I could. Here’s your first paragraph, and then go read the rest: Do [...]
Pingback by Truth Wins Out - The ‘Take Off Your Pants, Touch Yourself’ Method — July 19, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
Sadly, what is not often given is any support or answers on how to help those who have been damaged by such organizations. I have been through the ex-gay world and come out the other side. Although it was hell at the time, I have worked actively to heal myself and take the steps to positively and unconditionally embrace my gay sexuality. If you are struggling, please feel free to contact me: exgaynoway.com
Comment by Dr. Jallen Rix — July 19, 2010 @ 5:56 pm
Ben and Chaim, Thank you for coming forward and courageously speaking about your experiences with Alan Downing. These ex-gay treatments deserve to be exposed as shams, because it truely is wrong. Sorry you guys endured the treatments, may you both live your lives with acceptance, peace & love. :-)
Comment by RDR — July 19, 2010 @ 9:13 pm
I don’t know if engaging in that exercise with that Dr. Downing guy would assist in making anyone straight, but I think it could go a long way toward making them never want to have sex again in any form. So I guess it’s sort of half successful.
Comment by Mark — July 20, 2010 @ 9:32 am
Actually, on consideration I think that encouraging the client to feel himself so as to grasp his masculinity physically could have been very effective. After all, he’d probably never done that before, just as the rest of us haven’t, have we? LOL
Comment by William — July 20, 2010 @ 9:33 am
Chris, I blame the parents of these children. They are the ones who need psychiatric help, not the kids.
Comment by Mykelb — July 20, 2010 @ 10:09 am
[...] “therapists” are almost as predictable as those against clergy. Truth Wins Out has the full must-read story, but here are some excerpts: ***POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING. Descriptions of sexual abuse below, and [...]
Pingback by The Gaytheist Agenda » Blog Archive » Another Day, Another “Ex-Gay” “Therapist” Accused of Sexual Misconduct. — July 20, 2010 @ 5:01 pm
It’s getting to the point that accusations of sexual abuse by these charlatans is almost as predictable as accusations of sexual abuse by clergy. When do we get to shut them down?
Comment by Buffy — July 20, 2010 @ 5:07 pm
[...] of Alan Downing, its lead counselor of Journey into Manhood (JIM) weekends.This occurred after Truth Wins Out exposed Downing for practicing therapeutic lap dances, known as touch therapy and asking his much younger [...]
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Pingback by Truth Wins Out: ‘Ex-gay’ coach made clients strip, touch gentals : PinkNews.co.uk — July 20, 2010 @ 8:03 pm
What’s new here? One more example of the total hypocracy and impoverishment of the right, in all areas, up and down the spectrum. These people are evil.
But, guess what? They are winning.
Comment by Richard — July 20, 2010 @ 9:25 pm
[...] It was just like the old homosexuality — except this time a Goldberg-recommended therapist strips you naked and then bills you for the abuse! Pretty nifty scheme if you ask [...]
Pingback by Truth Wins Out - Con Artist Promoter of Fondle Therapy To Teach At Porno Pete Camp — July 21, 2010 @ 12:27 pm
Wow! What a disaster this continues to happen over and over again, and yet these therapists are able to go on with their lives like nothing they did was wrong.
I appreciate these two coming forward with their stories. I know exactly what that is like. I commend them both!
Comment by Mark — July 22, 2010 @ 7:39 pm
Why does someone not sue these crazy people. That is abuse of power. Can no one sue them because they are religious? I am sickin by these people and the continue to get away with abusing people!
Comment by Silas — July 23, 2010 @ 12:32 am
Incidentally, what is Downing’s religious affiliatiom? One suspects Orthodox Judaism…?
Comment by Craig Young — July 23, 2010 @ 9:21 pm
He is a Mormon….indeed, JONAH therapists are almost all Mormons.
Comment by Wayne Besen — July 24, 2010 @ 1:57 am
Then the “take your clothes off” game must be extra-fun for him, because none of the clients get stuck on finding a Less Masculine Thing that merits shucking the magic underpants.
Comment by Evan Hurst — July 24, 2010 @ 4:34 am
[...] can one justify this kind of “therapy”? What kind of warped thinking is this? Alan Downing of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) makes his “patients” strip down and [...]
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Pingback by The Compleat Gay Makeover | — August 3, 2010 @ 2:43 am
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