BYU and Gay Aversion Therapy

Brigham Young University is today known as one of the nation's top religious universities. But, sometimes this religion can cause people to do horrendous things in the name of Jesus. One former practice was gay/homosexual aversion therapy. Basically, from 1931 to 1989 officially, the university, in an attempt to root out homosexuality, would trap young Mormon students, mostly men in compromising positions. According to former victims, they would be strapped down to a chair, with electrodes attached to their body and forced to watch various forms of pornography. Their heart rates were monitored to measure arousal. If the student was aroused by gay acts, they would receive a large shock. Then videos of straight sex were shown and the students were not shocked. This was done to turn them straight by way of associating gay thoughts with pain. Fortunately today, as most scientists know, you cannot change a person's sexuality by shocking them. Gay aversion therapy is a pseudoscience rooted in homophobia. Far from turning them straight, many former victims now say, due to trauma they have lost all sexual interest and cannot maintain a healthy relationship with either gender. The sad truth is, the only reason the university did this, was because of religious taboos, forever scarring these men.