New Jersey Court Upholds Fine Against Conversion Therapy Center

A win for advocates against LGBTQ conversion therapy, a New Jersey court upheld a historic fine last week against a conversion therapy center forced to shut down after former patients filed a lawsuit against them, citing widespread abuse.

On July 6, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New Jersey reaffirmed a 2015 judgment against Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a Jersey nonprofit claiming they could cure patients with same-gender attractions. Men who sought out treatment through JONAH cited a three-week trial with treatments including being forced to strip naked and beat pillows that represent their mothers to rid themselves of feminine influences.

In New Jersey, conversion therapy has been banned since 2013, though laws limiting treatments to “cure” patients of their LGBTQ identities passed in 20 states only apply to minors, and JONAH’s patients were mostly adults. The 2015 ruling still alleged that JONAH violated the state’s consumer protection laws because they offered fraudulent services, which forced the group to dissolve. If the group did not cease operation, they would be compelled to pay plaintiffs $3.5 million.

In 2019, the same court found JONAH violated the agreement by continuing operation under a new name: Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA), created days after JONAH dissolved. Judge Peter F. Bariso, Jr. issued a permanent injunction, finding that JIFGA was just a continuation of JONAH, and noting that the new organization took money through a crowdfunding site by offering referrals to conversion therapists.

The court order, which was 47 pages long, also barred both co-directors of JIFGA, Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Berk, from holding positions of leadership in nonprofits or tax-exempt group in the future.

The defendants appealed the decision, arguing the referrals they offered were outside New Jersey and not subject to the terms of the original order. After two years, the state appellate court dismissed that argument and held JONAH and JIFGA liable for the entire penalty.

“(JIFGA) violated the Injunction Order because it raised money for projects promoting conversion therapy, and JIFGA retained 4 percent of the money collected for those projects,” the court ruled.

The defendants say they will continue to try to overturn the ruling, and attorneys for the plaintiffs said it could be a possible years-long court battle to fully reach resolution.

Souther Poverty Law Center is a pro-LGBTQ advocacy group that brought the suit to court on behalf of the former JONAH clients and families and said the recent findings by the court are “gratifying.”

“This case was always about protecting vulnerable people and families against the purveyors of fraudulent, harmful, and ineffective, so-called gay-to-straight conversion therapy,” says Scott McCoy, SPLC’s interim deputy legal director of LGBTQ Rights and Special Litigation.

Conversion therapy has been deemed harmful and ineffective by most leading medical groups in the United States, including the American Psychiatric Association. Research published in 2020 by the Trevor Project also shows that survivors of the practice are twice as likely to have attempted suicide and 2.5 times as likely to have reported a suicide attempted in the past year over people who had not.