Richard A. Cohen

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Richard A. Cohen
Born1952 (age 71–72)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Alma mater Boston University
Antioch University
SpouseJae Sook Cohen (1980–present)
Children3

Richard A. Cohen (born 1952) is a Christian psychotherapist and author associated with the ex-gay movement. He is a co-founder of Positive Approaches to Healthy Sexuality (previously Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality) [1] which offers discredited conversion therapy practices purporting to change a person from homosexual to heterosexual. [2] [3] [4] In 2002, Cohen was expelled from the American Counseling Association for multiple violations. [5] [6]

Contents

He is author of Alfie's Home, a children's book which depicts homosexuality as a reversible condition. [7] He gained media attention after demonstrating his ex-gay touch therapy on The Daily Show , which included cuddling with men and beating a pillow. [8] [9]

Biography

Cohen was born into a Jewish family in Philadelphia. During adolescence, Cohen reportedly spent "years in intensive psychiatric treatment unsuccessfully trying to become straight". [2]

Cohen identified as gay during his undergraduate years at Boston University. He sought counseling for his unwanted same-sex attractions. He became an evangelical Christian, and later joined the Unification Church. [2]

In 1980, Cohen married Jae Sook, a South Korean woman, and in 1995, Cohen and his family left the Unification Church. [2] [9] Cohen had affairs with men, often leaving his wife and children for long periods of time. [4]

According to The Washington Post, Cohen he "overcame homosexuality" in 1987 through an "intense but platonic relationship" with a straight man who "gave me the warmth of my daddy's love." [2]

Cohen received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boston University and a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from Antioch University. [2]

He is author of Alfie's Home, a children's book which depicts homosexuality as a reversible condition. [7] He served as the president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), a group which promoted reparative therapy. [6]

Expulsion from the ACA

In 2002, Cohen was expelled from the American Counseling Association (ACA) for violating its policies on advertising, engaging in dual relationships involving clients and counselors, and compromising client welfare. [5] [6] He did not appeal the ACA decision. [2]

Media appearances

Cohen was interviewed by Jason Jones on the March 19, 2007, episode of The Daily Show. [10] He gained media attention for demonstrating cuddling with men and hitting pillows as a method for curing homosexuality. [10] [8] After the appearance, PFOX scrubbed mention of Cohen's name from its website. [6]

Cohen was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on June 28, 2006, was interviewed on The Rachel Maddow Show on December 8, 2009, [11] and was on The Michelangelo Signorile Show on the Sirius radio network on April 17, 2010.

Related Research Articles

Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual 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 hormonal castration, aversive treatments such as electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, hypnosis, counseling, spiritual interventions, visualization, psychoanalysis, and arousal reconditioning.

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.

John Paulk is an American activist who, from 1998 to 2003, was an advocate of the ex-gay movement and conversion therapy. In April 2013, Paulk disavowed his belief in gay reparative therapy and issued a formal apology for his role as an advocate of the movement.

Wayne Besen is an American LGBT rights advocate. He is a former investigative journalist for WABI-TV, a former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, and the founder of Truth Wins Out. Besen came out to his parents before starting his Truth Wins Out Organization. After coming out to his parents, they bought him an ex-gay DVD that could supposedly hypnotize people and turn them straight. It was that and the invitation by President George W. Bush of ex-gay leader Alan Chambers to the White House that led him to start the Truth Wins Out organization.

<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">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.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is a non-profit organization that promotes the ex-gay movement. PFOX advocates the view that homosexuality is not a product of biological determination. Past presidents of PFOX include Greg Quinlan and Richard Cohen.

<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">Brothers on a Road Less Traveled</span> American nonprofit organization for men seeking to reduce unwanted same-sex attraction

Brothers on a Road Less Traveled is an American nonprofit organization supporting men who wish to reduce or eliminate their homosexual desires. Formerly known as People Can Change (PCC), the organization was founded in 2000, and is sometimes called Brothers Road (BR). 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.

Gay affirmative psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy for non-heterosexual people, specifically gay and lesbian clients, which focuses on client comfort in working towards authenticity and self-acceptance regarding sexual orientation, and does not attempt to "change" them to heterosexual, or to "eliminate or diminish" same-sex "desires and behaviors". The American Psychological Association (APA) offers guidelines and materials for gay affirmative psychotherapy. Affirmative psychotherapy affirms that homosexuality or bisexuality is not a mental disorder, in accordance with global scientific consensus. In fact, embracing and affirming gay identity can be a key component to recovery from other mental illnesses or substance abuse. Clients whose religious beliefs are interpreted as teaching against homosexual behavior may require some other method of integration of their possibly conflicting religious and sexual selves.

Arthur Abba Goldberg is an American businessman, convicted fraudster, and leader in the ex-gay movement. He is co-founder and co-director of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) and president of Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality (PATH).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homosexuals Anonymous</span> Anti-LGBT Christian fundamentalist group

Homosexuals Anonymous (HA) is an ex-gay group which practices conversion therapy and describes itself as "a fellowship of men and women, who through their common emotional experience, have chosen to help each other live in freedom from homosexuality." HA regards homosexual orientation as "sexual brokeness" that may be "healed" through faith in Jesus Christ. In common with other Christian fundamentalist groups, HA regards heterosexuality as "the universal creation-norm". This approach has been criticized for stressing that a person must renounce homosexuality to be a Christian, and because there is no valid scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.

<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.

Ferguson v. JONAH, New Jersey Superior Court No. L-5473-12 is a landmark LGBT civil rights case in which a New Jersey jury unanimously determined that conversion therapy, also called "reparative therapy," "reorientation therapy," or "ex-gay therapy" constituted consumer fraud.

David Matheson is a 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> LDS Church stances on attempting changes to homosexuality

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.

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. ↑ "PATH". March 2, 2015. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boodman, Sandra G. (August 16, 2005). "A Conversion Therapist's Unusual Odyssey". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Richard Cohen's Cynical Makeover". Falls Church News-Press . April 17, 2013. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Besen, Wayne R. (2003). Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-gay Myth. Psychology Press. pp. 164–167. ISBN   978-1-56023-446-3.
  5. 1 2 "Notification of Results Letter". Archived from the original on January 3, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2007., American Counseling Association. Retrieved July 4, 2007.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Potok, Mark (2016). "Quacks: 'Conversion Therapists,' the Anti-LGBT Right, and the Demonization of Homosexuality" (PDF). Southern Poverty Law Center . pp. 40–41.
  7. 1 2 Blue, Miranda (February 1, 2013). "Will the Supreme Court read the most horrific children's book of all time?". LGBTQ Nation . Retrieved September 28, 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Cuddling the gay away". Salon.com . August 2, 2011. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
  9. 1 2 "Richard Cohen". GLAAD . July 28, 2014. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  10. 1 2 "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah". March 19, 2007.
  11. ↑ "'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Tuesday, December 8, 2009". NBC News. December 9, 2009. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
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