It wasn’t so long ago that horrific practices were routinely performed on young boys in an effort to “cure” them of being gay.
So-called “ex-gay” therapies still exist, and we owe it to ourselves to remember the cruel history of this misinformed abuse.
An Australian man who is now 60 years old recently offered yet another personal take on the institutionalized trauma he endured when he was a boy.
Related: A Disturbing Undercover Look At How Conversion Therapy Tries To “Cure” Gayness
How about we take this to the next level?
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He recently told a Royal Commission he was repeatedly given shock treatments as a teenager at Turana youth correctional center in Victoria.
“I remember at times screaming from the pain of the electric shocks and being thrown from the chair,” said Robert Cummings, who was 16 when he was at the center in 1971.
“I learned from that point on not to say anything about the abuse as I felt I was still being punished and was not being believed about what was happening to me.”
Related: Bizarre And Homophobic Conversion Practices Exposed In Trial Of Ex-Gay Leaders
Sadly, the accusations don’t end there.
There have been some 200 people who have come forward to report stories of being regularly strip-searched, raped and violently attacked by staff at Turana from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Cummings said any complaint of abuse would only result in increased shock treatment.
Related: An Ex-Gay Therapist Was No Match For This Amazing Harvard Law School Student
h/t GayStarNews
Brian JC Kneeland
shut it down!
Marcus A. Moutra
Sickening monster that was a participant in this needs to rot in prison.
Mack
I’m beginning to think these “therapy” places are nothing more than cover ups for Pedophiles. I wonder how many Marcus has raped.
Finrod
And is everyone who ever worked there now in prison for life without parole? Why not? Isn’t that what we do to people who run concentration camps?
NoCagada
@Mack: Now, EVERYBODY knows that Marcus is the bottom and Michelle is the top
Ladbrook
And I think it’s important to point out that if this had been happening at a boy scout camp, the right-wing media would be all over this to show the world that we are sick and evil.
But when it’s their own program, with their own guys…. crickets.
Bob LaBlah
This does not “shock” me at all. Its surprising how many people here in America do not know that Australia was populated by British criminals, prostitutes, drunks and perverts whom were FORCED to get on that boat and head to Australia or be hanged. That was a helluva choice to make because half of them that thought they were better off going died during the voyage to get there. Forced migration to populate a land stolen from the original inhabitants.
I always look at them as the frustrated outcasts of yesteryear Britain and their antics prove it. That is the only place where there is a 70/30 chance someone being “gay bashed” will turn the tide on the original attacker. I also wouldn’t be surprised of they (the guys who turned the tide against the attacker) were prison guards themselves. Thats just how rough it is down there. Not even the descendants have changed from the original brood. These rapes prove it.
Gerald GeeLocke Panuthos
Monstrous!
Clark35
@Bob LaBlah: Have you even ever been to Australia? It’s nothing like you described, most people know this sort of “therapy” is a sham, and LGBT people do have rights there. British and later Italian colonization of Australia was the best thing that happened for the Aborigonies. Without it they would be alcoholics living in grass huts, and uneducated like the people from Papua New Guinea.
Kangol
@Clark35: Your comments about the Aboriginals are so r@cist they’re beyond shocking. What is wrong with you?
Had the white settler colonial monsters from Britain, Ireland and elsewhere never arrived in what is now Australia the Aboriginal people would be a lot better off. Do you have any idea how destructive the white colonists were to the Aboriginals’ lives and culture? Then again, you probably don’t care.
You need help, just like the sick hom0phobic beasts who set up these anti-LGBTIQ torture centers that damaged countless children.
Bob LaBlah
@Clark35: @Clark35: “Without it they would be alcoholics living in grass huts, and uneducated like the people from Papua New Guinea.”
As the saying goes never argue with a queen who has room to talk. I declare victory for you and leave it alone.
Tom Larsson
WTF