Amazon has stopped selling books on
therapies that attempt to alter the sexual orientation or gender
identity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people written by
NARTH founder Joseph Nicolosi.
Such therapies go by names such as
“conversion therapy,” “reparative therapy,” “sexual
orientation change efforts” or “ex-gay therapy.” Seventeen
states plus the District of Columbia have banned such therapies to
minors.
(Related: Utah's
governor issues directive to regulate “ex-gay” therapy.)
Nicolosi, who died in 2017, founded the
National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality
(NARTH) in 1992 with Benjamin Kaufman and Charles Socarides. NARTH,
which changed its name to the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and
Scientific Integrity (ATCSI) in 2014, was a response to the removal
of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM), a publication of the American Psychiatric
Association (APA) that classifies mental disorders.
According to Business
Insider, Amazon has pulled titles by Nicolosi such as Healing
Homosexuality and A Parents' Guide to Preventing
Homosexuality. The outlet cites “sustained pressure from
activists” as the reason for Amazon's move.
Nicolosi told The New York Times
in 2012 that he believes “all people are heterosexual, but that
some have a homosexual problem.”
“I don't believe anyone is really
gay,” he told the outlet at the time.