Max Hirsh, a gay man from Oregon, has
filed a complaint alleging that a therapist attempted to turn him
straight without his consent.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
filed an ethics complaint this month against the doctor on behalf of
Hirsh, 22.
Hirsh, a University of Oregon student,
told the AP that he started seeing the psychiatrist to help alleviate
his depression and improve his social and romantic life. Instead the
doctor, whose name was not released, told his client that he was not
gay. He added that if Hirsh were indeed gay, then he would need to
accept that he could not have a satisfying love life.
“But you're heterosexual,” Hirsh is
quoted as recalling the doctor telling him.
“He said 'No,' like he had some extra
information about my sexuality that I didn't,” Hirsh said.
The SPLC sent its complaint to the
American Psychological Association and the Oregon Psychiatric
Association. In it the legal group lays out four ethics violations:
Failed to provide “competent medical care” and “uphold the
standards of professionalism;” Provided treatment known to present
significant risks without establishing benefit specific to that
treatment; Failed to provide treatment with informed consent and
“make relevant information available;” and Failed to provide care
with “compassion and respect for human dignity and rights.”
“No one should have to undergo
conversion therapy,” Hirsh said in a statement. “Ethical doctors
respect their patients, but by telling me he didn't think I was gay
and by reinforcing negative stereotypes about gay people, my
psychiatrist was deeply disrespectful of who I am.”
Wayne Besen, executive director of
Truth Wins Out, a group opposed to the “ex-gay” movement, which
is centered on “curing” gay people, called such incidents part of
a “disturbing pattern.”
“One of the most disturbing patterns
we see in reparative therapy is therapists pushing their own ideology
at the expense of the patients' mental health,” he said. “This
can often traumatize a patient because they see the therapist as an
expert who is supposed to help, not cause further harm.”
Christine Sun, the SPLC's deputy law
director, said of the complaint: “Our immediate goal is for the APA
to take these allegations seriously and ultimately ban conversion
therapy by its members.”
(Full
text of the complaint.)