Ex-gay champion and NARTH co-founder
Joseph Nicolosi died earlier this week:
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, a co-founder of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and a prominent figure in the ex-gay movement, has passed away, the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic, where he served as clinical director, confirmed over the phone to The Daily Beast. Nicolosi, 70, was a practitioner of conversion or reparative therapy, treatments intended to change a person’s sexual orientation that have been widely denounced by major medical associations—including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association—and banned by legislation in five states: Vermont, Oregon, New Jersey, Illinois, and California. The Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic announced on Facebook Thursday afternoon: “We are deeply saddened and shocked to announce the death of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi yesterday in California from complications from the flu.”
Nicolosi was a proponent of the idea that childhood trauma causes homosexuality (i.e., distant father, overbearing mother, etc.).
