A New Jersey judge on Friday ordered the closure of a nonprofit that offered to turn gays to heterosexuals.

Four gay men sued Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), claiming that the therapy they received violates the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

The men were represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in this first-of-its-kind lawsuit.

New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr.'s ruling requires JONAH to shut down and prohibits founder Arthur Goldberg and counselor Alan Downing from engaging in any form of conversion therapy commerce in the state.

According to the lawsuit, Downing and other counselors encouraged clients to blame their parents for their sexuality, instructing clients to beat effigies of their mothers. Other sessions involved clients undressing in front of a mirror. In one instance, Downing is undressed as he instructs young men to stand naked in a circle.

During a press conference in 2012 to announce the lawsuit, Chaim Levin, one of the plaintiffs, said that he and his family had spend thousands of dollars on “this scam.”

“JONAH's conversion therapy program harmed countless LGBT people and their families,” said David Dinielli, deputy legal director at SPLC. “JONAH peddled discredited, pseudo-scientific treatments to people who weren't sick, who weren't broken, and who needed nothing but love and support.”

“The end of JONAH signals that conversion therapy, however packaged, is fraudulent – plain and simple. Other conversion therapy providers would be well-advised to examine what happened to JONAH, and to abandon their foolish efforts to make gay people straight,” he added.

An attorney who represented JONAH in the lawsuit said that it was “sad that so many are celebrating the government's power to stop willing clients from working with willing counselors to lead their lives on Biblical principles.”