Watch Rachel Maddow Eviscerate A Guy Who Claims To Cure Gays

Richard Cohen, head of the International Healing Foundation, an organization that claims to “cure” gay people was interviewed by Rachel Maddow. Richard Cohen’s book Coming Out Straight has been cited by the Ugandan politicians as a reason for the harsh “kill the gays” bill currently in the Ugandan parliament.

Cohen’s 2001 book Coming Out Straight calls homosexuality a “same-sex attachment disorder” and details his methods of sexual reorientation therapy, including his theory of the causes of same-sex attraction, his methods of changing sexual orientation, and stories of people who have undergone his therapies.
Cohen describes the “hidden meanings” of same-sex attraction as:
– need for same-sex parent’s love
– need for gender identification
– fear of intimacy with the opposite sex

Cohen uses a technique called bioenergetics. He demonstrated this by smashing a tennis racket into a pillow while shouting the name of a person eliciting painful childhood memories. Cohen also uses holding therapy, which involves cuddling and repeating affirming words to attempt to establish healthy, non-sexual bonding that may have been absent during childhood. The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) states that holding therapy by a therapist is potentially dangerous and strongly opposes its use. In Cohen’s Counselor training program manual he states that only opposite-sex attracted mentors or same-gender parents should give holding therapy, and quoting from his 2000 book Coming Out Straight that the mentor should not be the same person as the therapist.

Cohen has said, “If someone wants to live a gay life, that needs to be respected. If someone wants to change and come out straight, that too needs to be respected. Let us practice true tolerance, real diversity, and equality for all.”

Jason Jones with Richard Cohen on The Daily Show:

Part 1

Part 2

The Daily Show represents Cohen as a clown, but unfortunately his pseudo-science is being taken seriously by some people in Uganda. Rachel explains and tears this guy a new one:

Rachel Maddow interviews Richard Cohen

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Rachel reads from Cohen book, about what Cohen says makes people gay. Those factors: divorce, death of a parent, adoption, religion, race, rejection by opposite sex peers. Maddow asks him to explain how race was a factor and he backs off of that claim. She also points out how he misrepresents himself as a therapist but in fact was expelled from the American Counceling Association (ACA) for ethics violations.