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Producers of this Fake News Program Put Children in Harm's Way by Comparing Licensed Therapy to Abuse and Torture Camps

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On March 10, ABC News’ "20/20" aired a year-long investigation on several "Christian camps" reported to be practicing so-called "gay conversion therapy." The expose, which amounts to fake news, revealed unspeakable abuse and torture by several unlicensed "pastors" operating reform schools for troubled youth, some of whom identified as gay or lesbian. Unfortunately, ABC News was more sensational than accurate in their reporting when comparing these rogue, abusive camps to licensed therapy for youth struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions, a practice that gay activists have aggressively sought to shut down in more than 25 states and cities across the country.

Christopher Doyle, a licensed professional counselor, leader in the #TherapyEquality campaign of Equality And Justice For All (www.equalityandjusticeforall.org) and co-coordinator of the National Task Force for Therapy Equality, says homosexual activists are working hard with a complicit media to mislead lawmakers and the public in order to further their political agenda.

“The liberal media are playing a sick bait-and-switch game with the public. As we witnessed with the 20/20 expose, they report abuse of gay youth by unlicensed, untrained "counselors," then subtly cite licensed therapy without clearly distinguishing between the two. This is a psychological technique used by the media called 'jamming'. Something legal, like licensed, ethical therapy, is juxtaposed with illegal or unethical activity, such as unlicensed abuse in rogue camps. The agenda was clear on 20/20 when the commentators mentioned several times that efforts were underway to ban licensed "gay conversion therapy" in 20 states and then discussed "unlicensed conversion therapy" in several horrific camps in Alabama. The problem is that what was shown on 20/20 was not therapy at all. Licensed, ethical therapists do not force or coerce teenagers to change, nor do they manipulate desperate parents to send their kids away to be reformed. It simply does not happen!"

Doyle also revealed a dishonest pattern among ABC producers in their solicitation of commenters. Doyle and several of his colleagues were contacted to comment on this story, but once the producers realized that Doyle and his fellow therapists denounced the abuse as unethical and clearly distinguished between licensed therapy and abuse, the producers suddenly lost interest and left them out of the program.

"One of the producers actually asked me if I could refer him to a therapist who employed "gay conversion therapy," an unethical practice that tries to change a gay person's sexual orientation against his or her will. When I told him that's not what therapists do (we work with the clients on their goals and never coerce, manipulate, or make moral judgments of the client), he asked me if I could refer him to a therapist that did. At that point, I confronted the producer and told him it was clear he was trying to manufacture a story that didn't exist. If you want to show this abuse but contrasting it with what licensed, ethical therapists do in practice, that would be the honest, right thing to do. But these ABC journalists were interested only in sensationalism."

Doyle went onto describe even more manipulation by ABC. It turns out that the Alabama reporter who covered the trial of one of the “Christian pastors” who ran the camp never even mentioned sexual orientation or “gay conversion therapy” in news reports. The “pastor” was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

What is perhaps the worst outcome of this blatantly misleading expose, comments Doyle, is the fate of future youth should licensed, ethical therapy options be taken away.

"If efforts by gay activists succeed and licensed therapy for youth struggling with sexual identity is banned, it is likely that more and more of these rogue, abusive camps will emerge as parents become desperate for help in understanding and getting therapy for their sexually confused, and sometimes, sexually abused children. Banning licensed therapy opens up the door for more abuse. While ABC may believe that their reporting is noble, they are putting future children in harm's way by buying into the gay activists’ bait-and-switch tactic. The public needs to know about this profoundly dishonest “reporting.” It is fake news at its worst.”