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Evergreen Pages

So-Called "Reparative Therapy"

Affirmation Member Helps Bring National Attention to “Conversion Therapy”
Sam Wolfe: “We are seeking to hold them accountable for their false representations”

Despite the lawsuit, Evergreen continues to link to JONAH at its website.

by Hugo Salinas
December 2012

In a historic case which received national media attention, Affirmation member Sam Wolfe is helping bring a lawsuit against an organization that claims to convert people from gay to straight.

Sam, who is a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center, is bringing the lawsuit on behalf of four former patients of JONAH, a Jewish organization which, much like Evergreen, claims to “heal” gays and lesbians by diminishing or curing their same-sex attraction.

Sam was featured on Current TV’s Joy Behar Show on November 28 and on CNN on December 1, and was quoted in stories in The Salt Lake Tribune and The New York Times. The lawsuit was also covered by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, ABC News, and other media outlets around the country.

“This is the first time that survivors of ‘conversion therapy’ have brought a lawsuit in a court of law seeking to hold ‘conversion therapists’ responsible for the harm that they have perpetrated on our clients and many others,” Sam told Doug Frabrizio on the November 28 episode of Radio West.

“We brought this case in New Jersey; there they have a strong consumer protection law that is among the strongest in the country,” Sam added. “JONAH and Alan Downing, a counselor for JONAH, as well as the founder of JONAH Arthur Goldberg… violated this law by giving false promises to our clients that if they would follow JONAH’s program, if they tried hard enough, if they went though all of these exercises, that they would essentially turn form gay to straight; and we are seeking to hold them accountable for their false representations and for the harm caused.”

Despite the lawsuit, Evergreen continues to link to JONAH at its website.

“These [groups] seem to be generally reliable groups with principles compatible with Evergreen’s mission,” the Evergreen site claims. “However, we do not endorse any one of them unconditionally.”