Ex-gay group leader says college restricts information on therapy

FAIRFAX, Va., Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The head of a group that supports ex-gays has accused a Virginia college of restricting student access to information about treatment for homosexuality.

Christopher Doyle, president of Voice of the Voiceless, said he "nearly begged" a counselor at George Mason University to give him an "ex-gay pamphlet," The Washington Post reported Monday.

Doyle said in a press release he visited the school's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual Questioning counseling center pretending to be a graduate student seeking help for "unwanted homosexual feeling."

Eventually, Doyle said, center director Ric Chollar gave him a pamphlet "which was buried in the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet."

Doyle claimed the lack of information about "reparative" therapy raised First Amendment and therapeutic issues.

"You take the client's goals, and you work with their goals and you don't impose your own values," he said. "It's supposed to be value neutral."

Both California and New Jersey have banned reparative therapy for homosexuality.

Exodus International, a major group devoted to sexual orientation, shut down in June after its leader apologized for what he said was misdirected work.

The American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization are among at least seven groups that advise against reparative therapy.