A long-time Toronto psychiatrist, known for administering gay conversion therapy, has been found guilty of sexually abusing two of his male patients.
Dr. Melvyn Iscove, 72, has long believed that homosexuality is a disorder that can “be overcome,” and was described by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario discipline committee as having a “special interest in the treatment of patients with problems related to homosexuality.”
But the committee also found that the doctor had engaged in oral and anal sex and mutual masturbation with some of his male clients during therapy sessions. The doctor told his patients that engaging in sexual acts was part of their treatment, and would allow them to stop fantasizing about them, according to the report.
Two patients, now in their 40s, testified that Iscove abused them while they were in their 20s. One patient who saw the doctor to treat his depression and anxiety associated with “fears he was gay,” was asked by the doctor to describe sexual fantasies he had about the two of them. The doctor then told the patient “You may touch me if you like,” and proceeded to remove his pants. Sexual encounters of this nature occurred at least 10 times during therapy sessions.
Another patient began seeing Iscove when he was 18 for depression and anxiety, but said he identified as heterosexual at the time. The patient said he was asked multiple times about any dreams he had related to “homosexual feelings,” and that any heterosexual fantasies he had were described by the doctor as “being a way of denying his homosexuality,” according to the committee. “Patient B firmly believed that Dr. Iscove was attempting to ‘cure’ his homosexuality.” The patient and Iscove began engaging in sexual acts in 2007.
According to the committee, Iscov also violated rules by attempting to sell a juicer to a patient as well as other personal items.
For many years, the retreats were a deeply hidden secret—because that’s the way Wyler and JONAH wanted it. For the “advanced” weekend, called “Journey Beyond,” participants signed nondisclosure agreements stipulating $5,000 in damages if they ever spoke about what happened there. When JONAH was on trial, Wyler attempted to exclude information about Journey Beyond on the basis of trade secret law, but the judge shot him down, and unsealed testimony from Jonathan Hoffman—a star witness for JONAH, a “success story” they held up as validation of their methodology. In it, Hoffman described a nude “rebirthing” ceremony.
The simulated birth is the beginning of a psychodrama-packed weekend spent almost entirely naked. First, attendees of the retreat strip down, and tie on blindfolds. Naked and blind, they are led to mattresses laid out on the floor. Staffers swaddle the men in blankets, tight, to “simulate the womb.” The men then wriggle out of their plush blankets—meant to approximate a birth canal—and staffers “come and kind of nurture these new babies…you know, kind of wipe water on their face, and kind of clean them up, and it feels very real,” Hoffman said. Next, the men play out boyhood, with a “crazy, fun father who like bursts into the nursery and says ‘Come on, boys, let's have some fun together!’” (Downing sometimes played the role of “father.”) By this stage, both participants and staff members are nude. The men are lead out of the “nursery” and into a field, where a “wild party” begins. There’s a waterslide, fireworks and “brotherly dancing” around a campfire. The naked men fling mud and throw cake—laid out for just that purpose—at each other. They’re all “just expressing their little boyish energy” for about an hour, explained Hoffman, who now lives with his wife and child in Jerusalem, where he works as a conversion therapy life coach.
Camden Hill
Homophobes are always faggots. Straight men don't give a fuck who you sleep with
Robert Sullivan
Afterward, everyone showers together. “It's just carefree, you know, if there's cake on my back, can you help me get it off my back,” said Hoffman, adding that the nudity “becomes very secondary.” He explained that if men got erections during the weekend, they were encouraged to talk to a staffer to “process it,” talk about what might be causing it until it went away. In gay conversion therapy, sexual attraction is never just sexual attraction; there must be some sublimated drive, deficit or trauma to be dealt with.
Both Levin and Unger attended PCC’s entry-level weekend: Journey Into Manhood. The core theme is a loose interpretation of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale, in which Jack (played by a staff member) is reclaiming his beans—his masculinity. The participants are awarded a satchel of beans to wear around their necks at the end of the weekend. The script dispels any ambiguity early on:
Jack : So what is up with the beanstalk?
Elder [a second counselor]: The beanstalk is a masculine image, a phallic symbol.
Jack: So the beanstalk is a big penis?
Elder: Well, symbolically, yes.
Jason Allen
In another Journey Into Manhood scenario, participants are blindfolded while facilitators bounce basketballs around them in a crude reenactment of grade school gym class, while shouting scripted epithets such as, “Catch the ball next time or I’ll shove it up your ass” and “Hey, guys, let’s get that little queer in the shower.” For another exercise, called “Facing the Feminine,” the floor is littered with “feminine objects,” like a wooden spoon, an apron and a tampon. Participants are blindfolded while counselors shout "Don't touch your penis, it's dirty!" or "I was really hoping you would be born a girl!" or "Can't get it up!" and "You're not the man I thought I married!”
Toward the end of the weekend, participants are emotionally raw, Levin remembers. That’s when cuddling begins.
Spirit Guide [a counselor]: Can you connect to that boy inside you now?
Jack : Yes.
Spirit Guide : Would that little boy like to be touched or held?
Jack : Yes.
Jack and the Spirit Guide then cradle each other on the floor, and the lights go down. Music comes on: Spiritual “life coach” and singer Shaina Noll’s saccharine rendition of “ How Could Anyone .” How could anyone ever tell you that you were anything less than beautiful?/How could anyone ever tell you you were less than whole?
Eventually, all the men are on the floor, staffers cradling participants. Unger remembers staffers whispering “I love you,” “you’re beautiful,” and other affectionate phrases during the cradling—which Downing calls “healthy touch"—as “How Could Anyone” played over and over.
James Sullivan
The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.
A 1996 study from the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found that homophobic heterosexual men were most sexually aroused by gay male porn than non-homophobic hetero men.
A 2012 study of 785 college students published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that “self-described highly straight individuals” who “indicated some level of same-sex attraction” were significantly more likely than others to “express greater implicit hostility toward gay subjects” including supporting anti-gay policies.
A 2017 study published in the journal Sex Roles said that men who felt insecure about their masculinity were more likely to make homophobic and sexist jokes to appear more manly.
This. As far as I'm concerned a homo is just one less person to compete with. Unless they fake being gay (plenty exist)
Asher Watson
Conversion in the gay community in Australia means something else, that's interesting. You scratch up the inside of your arse with wire then either have your partner who is HIV+ cum in your hole, or pour in fresh cum with a funnel. Literal conversion. Very popular in Sydney's gay underground.
Logan Nelson
the true cure for gays is a shot on the head
Andrew Hill
>sell me a juicer you fucking faggot REEEEEEEEE
Kayden Sanders
Am I the only one reading this that thinks it could be therapeutic to men who were abused as boys or didn't have normal childhoods?
its typical of a faggot to engage in this type of assaulting behavior. they cant just keep their faggotry in the closet, or their sex life behind closed doors. they have to rape and molest to recruit. This is why God roasted you sodomites alive. Hell is forever sodomites.
