Brothers on a Road Less Traveled

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Brothers Road
Brothers on a Road Less Traveled
Named after"The Road Not Taken"
Founded2000;24 years ago (2000) [1]
FoundersRich Wyler, Dave Matheson
Type Educational Organization [2]
54-2056275 [2]
PurposeSupport men wanting to attempt to decrease unwanted homosexual attractions, and increase heterosexual attractions [3] [4] [5]
Headquarters Ruckersville, Virginia, USA [2]
Area served
Worldwide
Subsidiaries Journey Into Manhood
Website brothersroad.org (formerly PeopleCanChange.com)
Formerly called
People Can Change (until 2016) [6]

Brothers on a Road Less Traveled is an American nonprofit organization [7] supporting men who wish to reduce or eliminate their homosexual desires. [3] [4] Formerly known as People Can Change (PCC), [6] [8] the organization was founded in 2000, and is sometimes called Brothers Road (BR). [9] It runs the Journey Into Manhood program. The organization and program are controversial and have been alleged to be consumer fraud in a 2016 complaint made to the Federal Trade Commission. For decades, Brothers Road co-founder David Matheson was one of the nation's leading conversion therapists, but in 2019 he left the organization to date men. [10] [11]

Contents

Formation and purpose

People Can Change was founded in 2000 by two Mormon men, Rich Wyler and David Matheson, based upon principles of reparative (conversion) therapy. [1] Both men had ties to the now-defunct, ex-gay LDS organization Evergreen International. [12] [13] [14] In 2016, PCC changed its name to Brothers on a Road Less Traveled. [6]

In a 2007 interview, Wyler explained that the organization's purpose is to help men find peace and fulfillment in their lives; while Wyler states that some men may find peace and fulfillment in a gay identity, he contends that other men with homosexual attractions have found fulfillment in celibacy or in heterosexual relationships. [15] Many mental health organizations have criticized conversion therapy. [16] [17] Though BR seeks to diminish same-sex attractions, it "does not identify as an organisation for gay conversion therapy." [18] However, Mathew Shurka--the co-founder of Born Perfect--has asserted that Brothers Road and other groups like it are "repackaging" conversion therapy. [19] The Brothers Road website states that BR "especially support[s] ... Men who want to explore affirming ways to lessen the distress, intensity, or frequency of any same-sex attractions" and "align their sexual and romantic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors with their own core values". [5] [4] Men who try to avoid same-sex relationships and seek opposite-sex ones often do so because of religious beliefs. [20]

Programs

The Journey Into Manhood (JiM) weekend is an ex-gay program offered by BR. [21] [22] [23] The JiM weekend was founded in 2002 by Rich Wyler and counselor David Matheson. [23] [9] The JiM weekend lasts for 48 hours and includes psychodrama, [9] visualizations, role-playing, and team-building exercises. [23] Journeyers "are taught that their same-sex attractions are rooted in childhood traumas that pulled them away from male figures" and that to experience sexual orientation change, they "need to fulfill their needs for male attention through non-sexual platonic bonding." [23] "The founders do not promise [attendees] they will transition from being gay to straight [overnight], but the overall goal is to give the men a foundation so they can work on making the change over time." [23] In 2017, Wyler stated that Journey into Manhood weekend participants must be 21 years of age and must attend the program voluntarily; [24] previously attendees were as young as 18. [23]

JiM weekends also include an activity that PCC has described as "safe healing touch" [9] [21] [25] or "'father-son-style holding'". [23] Dr. Jack Drescher of the American Psychiatric Association has stated that "there is no scientific evidence that 'healthy touch' exercises can help diminish same-sex attractions." [23] Wyler has defended the practice as "touch[ing] a core unmet need from childhood." [23]

Witnesses testified about Brothers Road programs in Ferguson v. JONAH , a lawsuit in which a New Jersey jury found that conversion therapy constituted consumer fraud. [26]

Some attendees of Brothers Road programs have later spoken out against the organization [27] [28] [29] [23] but others have spoken favorably about their experience. [30] [9] [31]

2016 Federal Trade Commission complaint

In February 2016, Brothers Road (then PCC) was "reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and accused of breaking the prohibition on unfair and deceptive acts" by engaging in sexual orientation change efforts. The complaint alleged that PCC "defraud[ed] consumers into believing that being gay is tantamount to a mental illness or defect", and added that various mental health organizations had debunked that belief. The complaint was filed on behalf of "a coalition of LGBT and human rights groups", "including the Human Rights Campaign, National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center". [32]

In a March 2016 statement, the World Psychiatric Association asserted that there "is no sound scientific evidence that innate sexual orientation can be changed". [18] Brothers Road co-founder Rich Wyler called the FTC complaint an "act of hate and vicious bullying against our community of adult men—gay, bi-sexual, ex-gay and same-sex attracted men [that] choose to not identify as gay". [32]

Exit of David Matheson

In January 2019, Journey Into Manhood co-founder David Matheson announced that he was disaffiliating from BR and the LDS Church and dating men. [10] [33]

See also

Related Research Articles

Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have been used to this end include forms of brain surgery, surgical or chemical (hormonal) castration, aversion therapy treatments such as electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, hypnosis, counseling, spiritual interventions, visualization, psychoanalysis, and arousal reconditioning. There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and that it frequently causes significant long-term psychological harm. The position of current evidence-based medicine and clinical guidance is that homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender variance are natural and healthy aspects of human sexuality. An increasing number of jurisdictions around the world have passed laws against conversion therapy.

The Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity (ATCSI), which until 2014 was known as the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), also known as the NARTH Institute, is a US organization that promotes conversion therapy, a pseudoscientific practice used in attempts to change the sexual orientation of people with same-sex attraction. NARTH was founded in 1992 by Joseph Nicolosi, Benjamin Kaufman, and Charles Socarides. Its headquarters were in Encino, California, at its Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic. NARTH has not been recognized by any major United States–based professional association.

The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship. Beginning with the founding of Love In Action and Exodus International in the mid-1970s, the movement saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s before declining in the 2000s.

Richard A. Cohen is a Christian psychotherapist and author associated with the ex-gay movement. He is a co-founder of Positive Approaches to Healthy Sexuality which offers discredited conversion therapy practices purporting to change a person from homosexual to heterosexual. In 2002, Cohen was expelled from the American Counseling Association for multiple violations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exodus International</span> Defunct Christian conversion therapy organization

Exodus International was a non-profit, interdenominational ex-gay Christian umbrella organization connecting organizations that sought to "help people who wished to limit their homosexual desires". Founded in 1976, Exodus International originally asserted that conversion therapy, the reorientation of same-sex attraction, was possible. In 2006, Exodus International had over 250 local ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries in 17 other countries. Although Exodus was formally an interdenominational Christian entity, it was most closely associated with Protestant and evangelical denominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evergreen International</span>

Evergreen International, Inc. was a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization located in Salt Lake City, Utah whose stated mission was to assist "people who want to diminish same-sex attractions and overcome homosexual behavior". Evergreen supported the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Founded in 1989, Evergreen closed in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Nicolosi</span> American clinical psychologist (1947–2017)

Joseph Nicolosi was an American clinical psychologist who advocated and practised "reparative therapy", a form of the pseudoscientific treatment of conversion therapy that he claimed could help people overcome or mitigate their homosexual desires and replace them with heterosexual ones. Nicolosi was a founder and president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). Medical institutions warn that conversion therapy is ineffective and may be harmful, and that there is no evidence that sexual orientation can be changed by such treatments.

Ex-ex-gay people are those who formerly participated in the ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, but who then later went on to publicly state they had a non-heterosexual sexual orientation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courage International</span>

Courage International, also known as Courage Apostolate and Courage for short, is an approved apostolate of the Catholic Church that counsels "men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love". Based on a treatment model for drug and alcohol addictions used in programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Courage runs a peer support program aimed at helping gay people remain abstinent from same-sex sexual activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JONAH</span> Jewish ex-gay organization

Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA), known before 2015 as Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), was a Jewish non-profit organization which offered conversion therapy to persons who sought sexual orientation change. JONAH stated that it was "dedicated to educating the world-wide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors which lead to same-sex attractions". JONAH's leaders disagreed with the consensus of mainstream science and the world's major mental health organizations who say that non-heterosexual sexual orientation is not a disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. Dean Byrd</span>

Albert Dean Byrd was a former president of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), a research organization that advocates sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE). He was a psychologist who focused on SOCE, and wrote on the topic. Although raised by a Buddhist mother and a Baptist father, Byrd converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was very active in the debate within the church on issues involving homosexuality.

Sexual Identity Therapy (SIT) is a framework to "aid mental health practitioners in helping people arrive at a healthy and personally acceptable resolution of sexual identity and value conflicts." It was invented by Warren Throckmorton and Mark Yarhouse, professors at small conservative evangelical colleges. It has been endorsed by former American Psychological Association president Nick Cummings, psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, and the provost of Wheaton College, Stanton Jones. Sexual identity therapy puts the emphasis on how the client wants to live, identifies the core beliefs and helps the client live according to those beliefs. The creators state that their recommendations "are not sexual reorientation therapy protocols in disguise," but that they "help clients pursue lives they value." They say clients "have high levels of satisfaction with this approach". It is presented as an alternative to both sexual orientation change efforts and gay affirmative psychotherapy.

Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality (PATH) is a coalition of groups that purport to help "people with unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) realize their personal goals for change—whether by developing their innate heterosexual potential or by embracing a lifestyle as a single, non-sexually active man or woman." The predominantly ex-gay member groups promote the "right to decide whether to seek counseling or therapy" and abstinence. The coalition lists studies on reparative therapy and links to organizations that work with people who have unwanted same-sex attractions.

North Star Saints is an organization for LGBT people in the Latter-day Saint community. North Star is described as a faith-affirming resource for Latter-day Saint people addressing sexual orientation and gender identity who desire to live in line with teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. North Star supports the teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ, including the law of chastity and teachings on homosexuality, which prohibits sexual relationships outside of a legal marriage between one man and one woman, as well as teachings on gender identity and expression. The organization takes "no official position on the origin or mutability of homosexual attractions or gender identity incongruence", and does not "endorse political causes or join political coalitions, including those officially sanctioned by the [LDS] Church."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Core Issues Trust</span> British Christian fundamentalist organisation

The Core Issues Trust is a British Christian fundamentalist organisation that provides conversion therapy for LGBT people.

Although the historical record is often scarce, evidence points to LGBT individuals having existed in the Mormon community since its beginnings, and estimates of the number of LGBT former and current Mormons range from 4 to 10% of the total membership of the LDS Church. However, it wasn't until the late 1950s that top LDS leaders began regularly discussing LGBT people in public addresses. Since the 1970s a greater number of LGBT individuals with Mormon connections have received media coverage.

David Matheson is an American campaigner known for his previous advocacy of conversion therapy. In 2019, he announced he was divorcing his wife of 34 years and intended to live as a gay man. He previously led the organization Journey into Manhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual orientation change efforts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</span>

Because of its ban against same-sex sexual activity and same-sex marriage the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a long history of teaching that its adherents who are attracted to the same sex can and should attempt to alter their feelings through righteous striving and sexual orientation change efforts. Reparative therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual, or their gender identity from transgender to cisgender using psychological, physical, or spiritual interventions. There is no reliable evidence that such practices can alter sexual orientation or gender identity, and many medical institutions warn that conversion therapy is ineffective and potentially harmful.

Many health organizations around the world have denounced and criticized sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts. National health organizations in the United States have announced that there has been no scientific demonstration of conversion therapy's efficacy in the last forty years. They find that conversion therapy is ineffective, risky and can be harmful. Anecdotal claims of cures are counterbalanced by assertions of harm, and the American Psychiatric Association, for example, cautions ethical practitioners under the Hippocratic oath to do no harm and to refrain from attempts at conversion therapy.

The history of conversion therapy can be divided broadly into three periods: an early Freudian period; a period of mainstream approval of conversion therapy, when the mental health establishment became the "primary superintendent" of sexuality; and a post-Stonewall period where the mainstream medical profession disavowed conversion therapy.

References

  1. 1 2 Bulkeley, Deborah (August 13, 2004). "Ex-gay man says change possible: But reparative therapy remains controversial". Deseret Morning News. Archived from the original on August 16, 2004. Retrieved October 1, 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 "Brothers On A Road Less Traveled Inc". eintaxid.com. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Stack, Liam (November 30, 2016). "Mike Pence and 'Conversion Therapy': A History". The New York Times . Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "Mission & Vision". BrothersRoad.org. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2018. We especially support men who choose to voluntarily explore the possibilities for minimizing their erotic or romantic responses to other men, and/or increasing their sexual or romantic interests in women, to the extent possible.
  5. 1 2 "Mission & Vision". Brothers on a Road Less Traveled. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 Yanko, Yadir (May 8, 2017). "An inside look into 'sexual orientation conversion therapy'". YNetNews.com. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Brothers On A Road Less Traveled Inc 501C3 Nonprofit Organization Information". TaxExemptWorld.com. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  8. ↑ "We've Changed Our Name!". BrothersRoad.org. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Fletcher Stack, Peggy (October 1, 2015). "Conversion therapies don't work, experts say, so why do gay Mormons still seek them out?". Salt Lake Tribune . Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  10. 1 2 "Once-prominent 'conversion therapist' will now 'pursue life as a gay man'". NBC News . January 23, 2019. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  11. ↑ Sottile, Leah (October 1, 2019). "Every week in church, I'm going, 'Can I come out?'". The California Sunday Magazine . Retrieved June 3, 2023.
  12. ↑ Brooks, Joanna (August 5, 2011). "'Ex-Gay' NPR Report Closets Mormon Side of the Story". Religion Dispatches . Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  13. ↑ Shulleeta, Brandon (July 11, 2010). "Gay-to-straight camp run by local man praised, panned" . The Daily Progress . Charlottesville, Virginia. Archived from the original on March 9, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2023– via Internet Archive.
  14. ↑ Wyler, Rich (September 21, 2007), "A Mighty Change of Heart", Evergreen International 17th Annual Conference, Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Salt Lake City, Utah: Evergreen International, archived from the original on July 24, 2012 – via Internet Archive {{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  15. ↑ Olney, Warren (March 3, 2007). "To Be or Not to Be...Gay". To the Point . KCRW.
  16. ↑ "Policy and Position Statements on Conversion Therapy". Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK" (PDF). United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. December 2021.
  18. 1 2 Lace-Evans, Olivia (March 30, 2016). "Global health group takes on gay conversion therapy". BBC . Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  19. ↑ Teeman, Tim (December 1, 2020). "Gay Conversion Therapy Survivors Speak Out: 'It's Torture'". Daily Beast.
  20. ↑ Gerber, Lynne (August 8, 2011). "Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy: Choosing Religion Over Sex". Religion Dispatches . Retrieved June 3, 2023.
  21. 1 2 Throckmorton, Warren (August 1, 2011). "NPR Report on 'Ex-Gay' Therapy Omits Crucial Details of Source's 'Journey Into Manhood'". Religion Dispatches . Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  22. ↑ "Out of the Darkness: Conversion Therapist Quits 'Ex-Gay' Movement". The Intelligence Report . Southern Poverty Law Center. September 10, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Owens, Ryan; Patria, Melia (November 8, 2010). "From Gay to Straight? Controversial Retreat Helps Men Deal With 'Unwanted Attraction'". ABC News. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  24. ↑ Crites, Nicole (September 29, 2017). "New ban on conversion therapy for gay teens in Arizona". KTVK Arizona's Family. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  25. ↑ Cox, Ted (August 4, 2011). "Touch Me, Man, I'm Healed, I'm Straight". Religion Dispatches . Retrieved June 3, 2023.
  26. ↑ Bixby, Scott (June 15, 2015). "Handcuffs, Baby Powder & Duct Tape: The Most Jaw-Dropping "Conversion Therapy" Practices". mic.com. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  27. ↑ Lace-Evans, Olivia (March 30, 2016). "Global health group takes on gay conversion therapy". BBC News.
  28. ↑ "I Spent Seven Years in Gay Conversion Therapy Programs Before Breaking Free". Esquire. July 28, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Handcuffs, Baby Powder & Duct Tape: The Most Jaw-Dropping "Conversion Therapy" Practices". Mic. June 15, 2015.
  30. ↑ "Utahns in 'My Husband's Not Gay' promote discredited 'conversion therapy'". The Salt Lake Tribune. January 12, 2015.
  31. ↑ Eckholm, Eric (October 31, 2012). "'Ex-Gay' Men Fight Back Against View That Homosexuality Can't Be Changed". The New York Times.
  32. 1 2 Pilkington, Ed (February 16, 2016). "'Gay-conversion therapy' faces new legal challenge in Virginia". The Guardian . Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  33. ↑ Holpuch, Amanda (January 25, 2019). "Man who worked as top 'conversion therapist' comes out as gay". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved February 19, 2019.
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