A New Jersey judge last month handed down a landmark decision that marked the first time a U.S. court found that homosexuality is not a disease or disorder.
A jury in New Jersey last summer reached a unanimous verdict finding that a firm that promised to convert young gay men into heterosexuals through “conversion therapy” violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act. The case was a first-of-its-kind lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on behalf of four men and two of their mothers who alleged that the firm Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, known as JONAH, engaged in fraud, made false claims and was emotionally abusive.
Last month, in granting a permanent injunction against JONAH, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. ruled that the premise of conversion therapy that homosexuality is a disorder and can be cured has been scientifically discredited, “like the notion that the Earth is flat and the sun revolves around it.”
