Comments on: Canadian Ex-Gay “Shock Doc” Therapist Sentenced To Prison For Sexually Assaulting Patients

By: Priya Lynn

Priya Lynn — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:17:41 +0000

I know a lot, perhaps most, homophobes are suppressing their own same sex attractions but this sort of thing still comes as a bit of a shock to me – How can someone who knows he has same sex attractions and who acts on them lie to himself and work towards, and claim its good, to oppress gayness?

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:36:06 +0000

Matt, your comment about there being parallels between molesting a child and taking advantage of one’s power in a therapy session is interesting. I too wonder what professionals think about that.

By: MattNYC

MattNYC — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:07:09 +0000

I’d just add that even someone “voluntarily” walking in off the street to go through SOCE is under pressure–even self-inflicted–to change and is willing to submit themselves to WHATEVER their Svengali tells them.

Frankly, that goes as much for these quacks as it does for all of those who say they hold the ear of/hear directly from God.

By: MattNYC

MattNYC — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:36:09 +0000

You know…I’m now starting to think that there’s a similar pathology for all molesters, regardless of the age of their victims.

I’m certainly not a professional in the Psychology/Psychiatry fields, but I’d propose that instead of always labeling these guys mere “closet cases,” we start looking at the power structure. Yes, his victims were all adults, but they did not necessarily have “free will”. Neither do many of those forced by their parents to go to “ex-gay” therapy. It’s shooting fish in a barrel.

I honestly don’t know that–in a better, more enlightened world–these molesters would be well-adjusted gay men. I think they would be the same sociopaths inflicting harm on victims, but the context would change.

I really do not see this man as any different from a pedophile–it’s STILL not about sexual orientation, it’s about power.

Maybe–just maybe–in a “perfect” world they’d just settle happily into the (gay) BDSM community to be able to play their power games, but I have my doubts. I think they crave the “thrill” of being beyond the law too much. A safe word would take away all the “fun.”

Any professionals out there to comment on this?

By: gsingjane

gsingjane — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:54:55 +0000

No, Levin seems uniquely awful and horrible. He almost seems like a Dr. Mengele figure or something along those lines… a person who, for whatever quirk of history, was given absolute power to do whatever came into his twisted and sadistic mind, against a defenseless and vulnerable population. “Gross human rights abuses” maybe starts to cover it.

They say that the closet is a dangerous place, and boy does this guy prove it in spades.

By: StraightGrandmother

StraightGrandmother — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:09:00 +0000

These instances of “professionals” who claim to cure the gay who have same sex sexual contact must be so unremarkable that nobody even commented. Same old same old?