Tag Archives: Brielle Goldani

New Jersey Governor Christie Makes Himself Complicit in the Effects of Sexual Abuse onto Children

tumblr_mrs55oCcmv1qj5rqko1_500On Monday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joined a small but effective group of lawmakers by signing legislation into law that bans all types of therapies that seek to “reduce or eliminate homosexual feelings” for minors. Christie joined his own legislature and New Jersey became the second state to ensure that children who are sexually abused by adults and teenagers will be permanently damaged by molesters and pedophiles in their respective states.

The new law in New Jersey is virtually the same language as that of California’s, of which the constitutionality is still being decided by the 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. As justification for the ban, Christie stated there was not enough evidence to support the use of Sexual Orientation Change Effort (SOCE) therapy to veto the law put forth by the partisan legislature.

He said this, despite a number of facts that have either been distorted or not reported.

Fact #1: The American Psychological Association (APA) stated in it’s 2009 Task Force Report on SOCE (pp. 82-83) that there is insufficient evidence that it is effective or ineffective and that there is no proof the intervention is harmful.

Fact#2: Christie said that be believes people are born with a homosexual predisposition, despite the scientific studies and countless testimonies that indicate homosexual feelings are not inborn and therefore changeable.

Fact #3: Despite the many letters written by therapists and clients alike who gave testimony of the significant and authentic change in homosexual feelings they have witnessed, Christie signed the law even though there is not one documented case filed with the New Jersey board that governs therapist’s licensure that complains about any child or adult undergoing the “horrors” of these kinds of therapies that’s been repeated over and over by gay activists.

Fact #4: The governor failed to challenge the false allegations of activists who said they were tortured by SOCE at “conversion therapy camps” but were unable to provide any evidence to support such claims. Most notably was Transgender Brielle Goldani’s fabrications of being sent the fictitious “True Directions” camp, that we now know only exists in the Hollywood production starring Drag Queen RuPaul, and the half-dozen additional “conversion therapy” camps Troy Stevenson of Garden State Equality said existed in Ohio and Oklahoma. Stevenson promised to provide the names of these camps, but failed to deliver after repeated requests.

Fact #5: Christie said he had to side with the “experts” on this issue, yet, these so-called “experts” could not produce one scientific study documenting that SOCE is ineffective or harmful for adolescents, despite their claims. Christie had to have known that the outcomes of adolescents undergoing SOCE have not been studied, and therefore, any decision to promote or reject such an intervention would be premature. In the case where solid evidence is lacking, the responsible action is to refrain from making any judgement until the science can be produced.

In short, Christie said these things because he is either grossly politically motivated, or completely ignorant of sound evidence. Either way, is this the type of man who New Jersey wants as a governor? Is this the type of man who America wants in the office of President of the United States?

No doubt, the appropriate lawsuits will follow any day now. In the meantime, take some time to think about the child who, God forbid, becomes sexually abused by a same-sex predator and who develops homosexual feelings resulting from this. God help your child if you ever live in New Jersey or California. You won’t get any help from their governors or legislatures. What you will get is propaganda from gay-affirming therapists who are more than happy to follow the law and refuse to help your child reduce or eliminate their homosexual feelings.

If you’re interested, see the letter I faxed to Governor Christie some time ago. Ah, but maybe it doesn’t matter? After all, it’s only about children, not about politics.

David H. Pickup, M.A., LMFT, is the Vice-President of Voice of the Voiceless and holds a masters degree in psychology. He is licensed in California and Texas as a Marriage and Family Therapist. He is pursuing his doctorate in psychology at California Southern University in Los Angeles. Note: Portions of this article were contributed by Christopher Doyle, President and Co-Founder of Voice of the Voiceless. For more information, visit: www.VoiceoftheVoiceless.info

 


08-10-13

Honorable Governor Christie,

I am writing you to urge you to veto A3371. As a psychotherapist who is licensed in California And Texas, I would like to draw your attention to how destructive this bill will be to certain groups of children if you do not exorcise your power of veto. I am going to give you scientific and anecdotal evidence, which I believe will show you how insidiously destructive this bill will be to certain minors and their parents. I will also show you the grave intolerant political agenda that is behind this bill.

I am also writing you because I was a child who experienced sexual abuse by a young man when I was 5 years old. I know the horrific experiences of this first hand. Only one of the abuses that I experienced was the rise of homosexual feelings as a result of what this man did to me. I was born a heterosexual, so when I reached puberty around 13, I was severely repressed and confused concerning these issues. I didn’t have a therapist to help me deal with these homosexual feelings. My sense of masculinity was severely shamed and underdeveloped. I suffered greatly for many years. Later in life I experienced the transformative power of authentic Reparative Therapy. I am now a Reparative Therapist who is helping children and adults from all over the country. See www.davidpickuplmft.com. I have an MA in psychology, and I am obtaining my doctorate at California Southern University. I have been a Reparative Therapist for 7 years. I was trained under the direction of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the creator of Reparative Therapy. After you read the evidence against A3371, I will tell you of specifically how Reparative Therapy helped me and how this kind of therapy is of extraordinary benefit to minors. I do realize this letter is lengthy. However, if you desire to truly look at the evidence, I believe it will be well worth your attention. By the way, every detail of the harmful things this bill calls SOCE is certainly not authentic Reparative Therapy.

Before I give you the evidence, I’d like to tell you that this letter is not being sent to demean, discriminate against, or mistreat Gay persons. It might surprise you to know that I have Gay minor clients, and I do not coerce them or treat them in any other way but with unconditional positive regard. They know what I do, and they trust me as we work on other issues besides sexuality.

(Next were many pages of reference scientific and anecdotal evidence.)

Finally…

Governor Christie, with all due respect, you and the New Jersey state legislature will become unintentionally complicit in the furtherance of sexual abuse of children if these minors can not receive sound, science-based, effective therapy for unwanted homosexual feelings that have arisen because of their same-sex sexual abuse. Can you imagine a wonderful little boy or adolescent coming into my therapy office in tears while telling me he’s hurt and confused because of the homosexual feelings he’s feeling because of his sexual abuse, and that all I can tell him is, “I can’t help you reduce or eliminate your homosexual feelings because it’s against the law, and you’ll just have to try your best in life.” Can you imagine?

SOCE therapists are on record acknowledging that there have been some incidents of coercive incidents in therapy sessions, and individual cases of harm done happen in the world in any form of therapy for any issue. However, since no one can be privy to everything that happens in all sessions, banning SOCE as a whole would actually be harmful to minor clients and their parents. I would highly recommend instead that before a bill be proposed or signed into law that further study be done first to represent sound, effective research in order to develop more specific controls. I believe the state owes this to minor clients and their parents who truly benefit by sound therapy and SOCE.

Additionally, the harmful coercive therapies the bills mention are interventions that were practiced 40-100 years ago. They are no longer used because they are indeed ineffective or outright harmful, and no therapist I know of would ever use this in today’s world. If there are abuses of any kind now, they should be handled on a case-by-case basis, not by banning therapy that truly works for minors. In fact, licensing boards are already fully prepared to do just this since their ethics codes and related laws for this are already in place.

In my opinion, based on my years of experience, there will be no question that if you let this bill pass  into law by trying to help one group of children, another group of children will be irreparably harmed if they are not allowed the kind of SOCE that helps this particular population.

I can tell you first hand that I greatly benefited from authentic Reparative Therapy and so have my clients, some of whom are minors. I’ve been using the term “authentic” because there is clearly a difference between the real thing and the many forms of other therapies that do not work, and/or are facilitated by shaming and coercive therapists as individuals. Reparative Therapy (created by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi) truly accomplishes the following:

It eliminates any and all shame for having homosexual feelings no matter how they arose. It allows boys and men to experience a decrease in depression and anxiety. It allows them to grow into great self-confidence in their own genders. It raises self-esteem. It demonstrates how boys and men can get their emotional need for affirmation, approval and affection from other males; needs that they simply didn’t experience in their early lives. And…this results in a spontaneous, automatic lessening or dissipation of their homosexual feelings. In short, they maximize their heterosexual potential. Please look at www.voices-of-change.org for testimonials of authentic, therapeutic change that the media, the APA and Gay therapists are trying to keep from you at all costs. The political agenda of these persons and associations is to force all of America into only one view of homosexuality for all people. This is not really about helping children, especially when you consider there has not been one ethical complaint taken before any licensing board in the past few decades about Reparative Therapy. I’m sure there have been individual incidents of wrongdoing. However, this is a problem that is not germane to Reparative Therapy per se. Why now are people coming forward? Because this is actually about a political agenda.

Thank you for your consideration. I would be honored to answer any questions you may have about these issues. I hope that you and your assistants will read this evidence with an open mind, and at least consider both sides of this historic issue. Professionals, children, parents, legislatures and politicians are certainly aware of the historical significance of bill A3371. I humbly ask you to please regard your own legacy in history when making your decision regarding this bill.

David H. Pickup, M.A., LMFT

VOV Condemns Kangaroo-Court Committee That Advanced Therapy Ban in New Jersey

New Jersey Gay Activists Continue to Misrepresent Truth in Committee Hearing on Bill That Would Deny Therapy for Child Sex Abuse Victims 

Trenton, NJ, june 13, 2013 – New Jersey Citizens Against the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act, A 3371 charged in their testimony today before the Assembly Women and Children’s committee that gay activists and their allies continue to fabricate stories and misrepresent the facts and scientific research related to the development and treatment of same-sex attraction.

The bill would ban licensed psychotherapists in New Jersey from providing widely accepted and proven sexual orientation change effort (SOCE) therapies to children and adolescents with unwanted same-sex attraction, including victims of abuse by sexual predators like Jerry Sandusky. The ban would apply even if these victims and their parents seek it.
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New Jersey Assembly Committee to Hear Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act Tomorrow

On June 13, 2013 a New Jersey Assembly committee will hold a hearing on the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act, also know as Assembly Bill 3371. Brielle Goldani and Troy Stevenson of Garden State Equality have been fabricating stories of “conversion therapy torture camps” since the March 18 hearing in the Senate, prompting opponents of the bill, which seeks to ban therapy for minors with unwanted same-sex attraction, to demand evidence. So far, allegations of at least eight torture camps in Ohio and Oklahoma have been made.

“Troy Stevenson promised to provide evidence of these ‘conversion therapy torture camps,’ but he cannot, because he’s lying. Just as Goldani’s lies about attending the fictitious True Directions camp, which only exists in Drag Queen Ru Paul’s movie, are catching up to her, so are Stevenson’s fabrications, who has falsely accused the Assemblies of God of torturing gay youth,” commented Christopher Doyle, Co-Founder of Voice of the Voiceless.

One can only hope that the members of tomorrow’s committee hearing will ask tougher questions than the Senate did, who failed to challenge the gay activists unsubstantiated allegations of “conversion therapy torture camps.” Other witnesses testified as to having been “harmed” by sexual orientation change effort (SOCE) therapy, yet were not challenged by committee members as to the specifics of their experiences.

“Anyone can get up on the witness stand, which was not under oath, and tell lies like Goldani and Stevenson did on March 18. It’s the job of the committee members to challenge serious allegations when presented. The Senate committee not only failed to challenge Goldani and Garden State Equality’s lies, they threw soft ball questions and even praised their ‘courageousness’ of speaking out against SOCE,” commented Christopher Doyle, Co-Founder of Voice of the Voiceless.

Just in case the Assembly decides to do their job tomorrow, here are a couple of great questions to ask those who testify that SOCE is “harmful” or present more allegations of “conversion therapy torture camps:”

  1. What is the name of the counselor or psychologist that treated you, what year(s) did you go through the therapy, and what state did the counseling take place?
  2. Was the counselor/psychologist licensed by the State of New Jersey?
  3. How many sessions did you undergo, and for what length was the treatment?

Asking these simple, direct questions, which the Senate committee failed to do, can easily determine whether a witness is telling the truth, or if they are fabricating portions or details of their testimony. If you happen to live in New Jersey, give the following Assembly members a call today and demand they ask these questions at tomorrow’s hearing. Each name is hyper linked to their contact information:

Lampitt, Pamela R. – Chair
Fuentes, Angel – Vice-Chair
Casagrande, Caroline
DeCroce, BettyLou
Mosquera, Gabriela M.
Schaer, Gary S.   

Wimberly, Benjie E.   

Christopher Doyle, M.A. is the Co-Founder and Acting Director of Voice of the Voiceless, the only anti-defamation league for former homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions, and their families. For more information, visit: www.VoiceoftheVoiceless.info

New Jersey Gay Activist Lies May Have Sealed Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act’s Fate

Garden State Equality and Brielle Goldani’s Lies To Advance Legislation Catching Up

It is now crystal clear that Troy Stevenson, Executive Director of Garden State Equality and Brielle Goldani’s lies are catching up to them. On May 30, CBS New York reported:

New Jersey Senate has put off a vote on a bill banning licensed therapists from trying to convert gay minors into heterosexuals. The postponement was made Thursday so some unspecified changes could be made to the legislation. It will be heard next by an Assembly panel.

Interestingly, the report failed to include some key facts that have been leading up to this decision. While the story mentions an Assembly panel hearing, it fails to report the fact that the same hearing was scheduled for May 15 and was also postponed, presumably due to “unspecified changes,” which is code for “we’re backing away from this toxic bill and we don’t want to tell you why.” Voice of the Voiceless (VOV) previously reported:

May 15 was supposed to be the nail in the coffin for New Jersey opponents of SOCE, who were attempting to push this legislation through a partisan legislature and put pressure on Republican Governor Chris Christie to take sides in an election year. After successfully moving the bill out of the Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee, activists had secretly scheduled an Assembly hearing for May 15. In fact, Gay City News reported on May 8 that Dr. Jack Drescher, a prominent New York gay psychiatrist, was scheduled to testify on May 15 before the New Jersey Assembly in favor of the bill.

But now, gay activists in New Jersey are running away from their fraudulent statements on March 18, and legislators are following the same course. Below is summary of their lies:

Lie #1 – Transgender Brielle Goldani said she was tortured in 1999 in a Columbus, Ohio “conversion therapy torture camp.” No one has been able to corroborate her story, including the Ohio Secretary of State, Attorney General, and her home church in New Jersey, whom she said paid for the camp. Additionally, mental health practitioners who have been working for decades in Ohio have never heard of a camp called “True Directions,” except of course, in Draq Queen RuPaul’s 1997 film But I’m a Cheerleader.

Lie #2 – Garden State Equality claimed there were an additional six “conversion therapy camps” after the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act Press Conference in May. After multiple e-mails and phone calls to their office, Executive Director Troy Stevenson failed to produce any evidence or provide any names, as he promised he would. Not surprisingly, the New Jersey mainstream media has failed to hold him accountable to produce the names of these so-called “conversion therapy camps.”

Lie #3 – This week VOV discovered yet another allegation from Troy Stevenson of a “conversion therapy camp” in Oklahoma. Apparently, this “conversion therapy camp” caused Troy’s childhood friend to commit suicide. Who knows how much truth is in this story. If this boy did commit suicide, that is obviously a tragedy. Any loss of life at any time is a tragedy, and we grieve for this boy and his family.

But what is really concerning is Troy Stevenson and Brielle Goldani’s attempt to use half-truths and downright fabrications to advance their political agendas in New Jersey. Just how far will these activists go? How many lives will they exploit in order to score cheap political points for Senator Barbara Buono’s campaign against Governor Christie? How many children in New Jersey will be told they are born gay and their same-sex attractions did not result from childhood sexual abuse from the likes of Pedophile Jerry Sandusky?

It appears, at least for now, that the New Jersey Senate is backing away from this toxic legislation. But who knows what Troy Stevenson and Garden State Equality are up to next? Who knows how many more unsubstantiated allegations of “conversion therapy camps” will come next without a news media to challenge them? Below is the e-mail I sent to Stevenson this week, asking him once again, to provide evidence of his allegations. To date, he has not responded.

Christopher Doyle, M.A. is the Co-Founder and Acting Director of Voice of the Voiceless, the only anti-defamation league for former homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions, and their families. For more information, visit: www.VoiceoftheVoiceless.info

 

 

Mr. Stevenson,

I wanted to follow up once again to the e-mail I sent you below, as well as ask you a question in response to your personal story of a conversion camp in Oklahoma (see below).

You have yet to provide, as promised, the names of the six Ohio conversion camps. We can only conclude that these camps do not exist. If they do, please give us names so we may investigate. Also, please give us the name of this conversion camp in Oklahoma.

It is to your benefit to be transparent about these allegations you and your organization have continually made against those of us who work in this field. I am happy to work with you and Garden State Equality to end any abusive practices, if they exist. However, all we have heard to this point is unsubstantiated allegations and half-truths from your side.

Thanks,

Christopher Doyle
Co-Founder
Voice of the Voicelesss

 

Personal – I’ve never told anyone this.

Posted by Troy Stevenson, Executive Director, on March 18, 2013 (Image)

Right now, I’m on the train to Trenton with members of the Garden State Equality team. We’re getting ready to testify in front of the Senate Health Committee to talk about “gay cure” and “conversion” therapies and why they are so harmful for LGBT youth.

As I was going over my prepared remarks, I realized that there is a story I’ve never shared before that I’m ready to tell — because this issue is deeply personal to me, and it’s important for legislators to hear it.

When I was 15 years old, I met a young man from the rival high school in my home town in Oklahoma. He was the first person I felt I could truly connect with, the first person I came out to, and the first person I ever kissed.

But that first kiss was interrupted. The football team caught us behind the school after practice. We ran for what we felt was our lives, and what may very well have been in Oklahoma in the early 1990s.

We made it to our homes safely, and my first call was to my friend to make sure he was OK.

But he wasn’t OK. He described the “conversion” camp his parents sent him to when he told them he was gay. He described things that I couldn’t imagine, indignities that I won’t repeat. He said, “I will never go back.”

That was the last time we spoke. The next day I found out that he took his life. There is no doubt in my mind that the thought of returning to that torment was more than he could take.

It took me another decade before I was brave enough to honor his memory and honor my true self-identity by coming out of the closet once and for all. I became a better person, an advocate, and stronger than I knew I could be. I found a new home, here in New Jersey, and I am proud to lead an organization that works every day to fight for the equality, fairness, and acceptance that I never felt as a young person.

I’ll be telling this story to the legislators later this morning, but I wanted you to hear it first from me directly.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you do and for the role you play in this organization, our community, my chosen home.

–Troy Stevenson
Executive Director, Garden State Equality

Anti-Ex-Gay Activists Soooooooo Angry About Sandusky-Branded New Jersey Bill

Wayne Besen, David Roberts, and Other Ex-Gay Haters Throw Tantrums on Blogosphere

It was bound to happen. Now that the New Jersey bill to ban therapy for minors with unwanted same-sex attractions has been successfully branded the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act, anti-ex-gay/gay activists are throwing tantrums on the blogosphere.

In a May 7 post, Toby Grace whines that “Brielle Goldani is now living a nightmare because of her courage and willingness to testify to the New Jersey Senate committee holding hearings on bill S2278, also known as “The Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act . . . Ms. Goldani says she has been essentially driven into seclusion by harassing phone calls at both home and work and stalking on social media sites. Troy Stevenson, director of Garden State Equality, characterized it as a “re-victimization,” and points out that, while there may be no camp with such a name in Ohio today, that in no way means there was none 15 years ago.”

To be clear, Brielle Goldani’s fraudulent testimony on March 18 has been thoroughly discredited in articles published byWorldNetDaily.com and Townhall.com. To sum it up, no one can corroborate Goldani’s story of being tortured in a camp called “True Directions,” which only exists in a 1999 movie starring Drag Queen Ru Paul. The Ohio Secretary of State and Attorney General’s office confirmed that no such camp has ever existed, as well as several licensed mental health practitioners in Ohio who have been working in the sexual orientation field for decades. Additionally, the top official in the Assemblies of God church network in Ohio denied such a camp has ever existed, as well as Goldani’s church in New Jersey, who she said paid for her (him at the time) to attend the so-called “conversion therapy torture camp.” Re-victimized? Sorry, one would have to be victimized in the first place to be re-victimized, and Goldani clearly has not.

But that hasn’t stopped the gay activists in New Jersey from doubling-down on their discredited conspiracy theories of “gay conversion therapy” camps. Troy Stevenson, Executive Director of Garden State Equality, claims there are an additional six camps in Ohio doing similar work as True Directions. Really Troy, six camps that use aversion therapy such as forced IV injections and electroshock therapy intended to zap the gay out of youngsters? The scene in New Jersey is quickly turning into a full-fledged circus with these unsubstantiated allegations, and the activists are getting nervous. So much so, that they cancelled the May 15 Assembly hearing where they intended to bring in “prominent” gay psychiatrist Dr. Jack Drescher to put a nail in the coffin for sexual orientation change effort (SOCE) therapy and send the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act on its way to Governor Chris Christie’s desk.

Clearly on the defense, anti-ex-gay activists are sooooo angry that their lies are being called out. David Roberts of Ex-Gay Watch complained last night on Facebook that therapists like me who are against children being victimized by pedophiles like Jerry Sandusky, and then lied to by gay activists that their same-sex attraction isn’t caused by sex abuse, are using this bill for political purposes and to “further our profits.”

Even better, Wayne Besen at the hilariously-named Truth Wins Out claims that ex-gay advocates are desperate and relying on “junk science” to make the connection with Jerry Sandusky and the New Jersey bill. If we were so desperate Wayne, why did your fellow anti-ex-gay activists in New Jersey cancel the May 15 hearing? Why not go forward and push this bill through the Assembly committee just like they did with the Senate hearing? Could it be that all their lies are coming back to haunt them? Could it be that THEY are desperate to create distance from these lies and the Sandusky-branded bill?