In 1970, a five-year-old boy named Kirk Murphy was subjected to an ex-gay experiment. Under the care of Dr Ivor Lovaas and George Rekers, then a doctoral student, of UCLA, he underwent therapy to eliminate supposed effeminate behaviors. In 1974, Lovaas and Rekers jointly published a paper about the boy they renamed “Kraig,” heralding his treatment for “childhood cross-gender problems” a success and claiming he had been transformed from a gender-confused homosexual-in-waiting to a healthy, heterosexual young man. On the back of this study, Rekers built a career as an anti-gay activist and a supposed expert in childhood sexual development. He co-founded the Family Research Council and championed reparative therapy to turn gay men straight. In 2003, Kirk, aged 38 years old and gay, committed suicide.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Sad……very sad……decades of damage done by this to 1000’s of lives…..but hey….we already knew about that through the many stories we have heard from people who have left the ex-gay world.

Here is the comment on Box Turtle by Jim Burroway (a dear friend of mine I have enormous respect for) ….and also Rekers response. Reker has profited financially over the decades from this tragedy…..that is hard to take.

“Kraig, I think, certainly was Rekers’ poster boy for what Rekers was espousing for young children,” said Jim Burroway, a writer and researcher who has studied Rekers’ work.

“We have been wondering where is Kraig? A lot of us have talked about it. Where is he today? Is he married or is he gay? Or specifically does he even know that Rekers has been writing about him?” said Burroway. “I found 17 different articles, books, chapters, that he has written in which he talked about Kraig.”

Rekers’ work with Kirk Murphy helped him build a three-decade career as a leading national expert in trying to prevent children from becoming gay, a career as an anti-gay champion that would later be tainted by his involvement in an embarrassing scandal.

As part of my investigation, I had wanted to speak to George Rekers. But after the rent-boy scandal, he had all but disappeared, and I was unable to find any working contact information from him. CNN was able to track him down:

“Well, I think, scientifically that would be inaccurate to assume that it was the therapy, but I do grieve for the parents now that you’ve told me that news. I think that’s very sad,” he said.

Rekers pointed out that the therapy had been decades earlier.

“That’s a long time ago, and to hypothesize, you have a hypothesis that positive treatment back in the 1970s has something to do with something happening decades later. That would, that hypothesis would need a lot of scientific investigation to see if it’s valid. Two independent psychologists with me had evaluated him and said he was better adjusted after treatment, so it wasn’t my opinion.” he said.

Those independent evaluations are an important part of the story. I will have more about that tomorrow. But I think it’s important to note what Maris, Kirk’s sister, told CNN:

I will post part two up in the original post when it become available in a few hours.

Since watching that, I have become extremely angry and yet really sad at the same time.

I went through elecrtronic shock therapy in the 70s arranged by a doctor who was a President of the Baptist Church. I now consider that for them it was a legitimate form of abuse. However it did prove medically I was born gay as there isn’t anything anyone can do to influence the outcome of those body temperature tests. I asked the doctor in Sydney who did it how many had had their sexual orientation changed and he said “NONE”. That proves being gay is NOT a matter of choice and that it CANNOT be changed.

THE most important goal in my life is to expose this kind of abuse and to support my dear gay friends in every way I can.

Part Three (final) is now up in the first post

hey Mattsbek…..good to see you here.

Possibly the reason Rekers work was accepted initially was the time he did it in. At that time some mental health professionals would have readily accepted his assumptions even though Homosexuality was struck off the list of mental disorders in 1973.. Had he done it today he would be struck off all professional lists for abuse.

Add to this date scenario the fact that he is an ordained Southern Baptist minister instead of moving with societies understanding of homosexuality his view became more entrenched.

What is really sad is that his books have continued to be sold for the last three decades based on false data.

In the christian book world…….the topic of homosexuality is quite incestuous……..in that once one person publishes some ‘research’ then every other christian author speaking on the topic will all quote the same person to back up their case. Another example of this is the ‘work’ of Paul Cameron. When my book was banned at Koorong bookshop I went there and bought about half a dozen books on homosexuality…….all anti of course…read them all from cover to cover…..and who did they all quote as a source…..the discredited Dr Paul Cameron of course…..and so the urban myths about gay mens health, life-spans, sexual practices, the ‘gay agenda’ and the LGBT community etc etc continue to be perpetrated in Christian books on the subject of homosexuality.

lets face it……if a christian is going to look for some answers on homosexuality are they going to go to their local christian bookshop or delve directly into scientific research……here lies a major issue that need to be addressed at some time. These books are causing harm and tearing families apart……not just sad eh……tragic.