Can gays be ‘cured’? Controversial practice attempts just that

There’s a skeleton in the closet at Brigham Young University: painful electric shock therapy of gay students as part of a 1976 psychology experiment to literally straighten them out. The patients were students who didn’t want to be gay.

BYU officials say similar studies were conducted at other universities at the time, and the experiments have not been conducted since. Still, the shock treatments and attempts to “cure” homosexuals are worth attention as part of a continuing dialogue about treatment of gays by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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Before the therapy, he and 16 other men who wanted to be straight signed papers informing them that damage to tissue or organs may occur, that they would be looking at sensitive materials (pornographic photos) that may be contrary to their values, and that BYU would be released from responsibility for any damage. Something similar to a blood-pressure cuff, called a “plethysmographic measure,” was attached to each man’s genitalia. If they became aroused by gay photos, their bodies were shocked by electrodes.

“For a year I thought (the electroshock) had some effect — I convinced myself that such was the case,” Cameron says. “But it didn’t change anything except increase my self-loathing. I didn’t know the ramifications of the experiment until years later.”

He repressed his experience for decades, and when he finally shared it, went through a three-year depression. A few years ago, Cameron wrote a play about his therapy experience and has produced it at the University of Iowa, Kent State University and the Salt Lake Acting Company.

“It’s not a play about victimization,” Cameron says. “I don’t think I’m a victim since I willingly participated in what happened. A lot of people made a lot of mistakes. I wrote the play just so people would know, and would think.”

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