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What Ferguson v. JONAH Revealed About the Real Risks of Conversion Therapy
A New Jersey jury put conversion therapy on trial as consumer fraud, and what surfaced should matter to every family weighing it.
Quick Takeaways
Ferguson v. JONAH was a 2015 New Jersey jury verdict that found a conversion therapy provider liable for consumer fraud. It was the first case of its kind in the United States.
The court ruled that calling homosexuality a disorder that could be "cured" was not just unsupported but legally fraudulent.
Decades of medical research tie conversion therapy to higher rates of depression, family estrangement, and suicide attempts.
For families of faith, the lasting damage is often relational: a child who feels they must choose between being honest and belonging.
When a New Jersey jury delivered its verdict on June 25, 2015, it did something no American court had done before: it judged conversion therapy not as a culture-war talking point, but as a product sold to consumers. In Ferguson v. JONAH, the jury found that an organization promising to turn gay clients straight had committed consumer fraud and engaged in unconscionable business practices.
The case is worth understanding because it pulled the practice into open court, under oath, with evidence. What emerged was a portrait of harm that families considering conversion therapy rarely hear about beforehand.
A Quick Correction: This Was Not a Supreme Court Case
Ferguson v. JONAH is sometimes described as a Supreme Court case. It was not. It was decided by a jury in the New Jersey Superior Court in Hudson County, a state trial court. The distinction matters: the verdict does not bind courts nationwide the way a Supreme Court ruling would.
Its influence comes from a different place. As one analysis in the Northwestern University Law Review put it, the case created no binding precedent but stands as a powerful model for future lawsuits. It showed that consumer protection law could reach a practice that had long avoided scrutiny.
What the JONAH Case Was Actually About
The lawsuit was filed in November 2012 by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of four young men and two of their mothers. The defendant, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality), sold counseling that claimed it could change a person's sexual orientation.
The plaintiffs' stories were notable for their faith backgrounds. Lead plaintiff Michael Ferguson had grown up Mormon; Benjamin Unger and Chaim Levin came from an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. These were not people hostile to religion. They were young men whose families and communities had pointed them toward a "cure."
In a pretrial ruling, the judge made a landmark finding: that homosexuality is not a mental disorder as a matter of law. He compared the opposite claim to the belief that the earth is flat. When the New Jersey jury reached its verdict, JONAH was ordered to refund clients and ultimately to shut down. When its leaders tried to reopen under a new name, a judge ordered it closed again in 2019 and imposed a $3.5 million penalty.
The court declared, for the first time in American history, that homosexuality is not a disorder to be cured. The legal system reached the same conclusion medicine had reached decades earlier.
Why Medicine Had Already Rejected the Premise
Long before the JONAH verdict, the medical field had settled the underlying question. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its diagnostic manual in 1973 and now states there is no sound evidence that conversion efforts work, alongside growing evidence that they cause harm.
That position is not an outlier. Conversion therapy has been rejected by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and every major medical organization. An AMA issue brief notes that federal experts at SAMHSA describe these efforts as coercive and harmful, and not a legitimate part of behavioral health care.
This is the consensus the JONAH court relied on. The judge excluded the testimony of leading conversion therapy proponents precisely because their views rested on the false premise that being gay is an illness.
The Risk to the Family Bond
Many parents pursue conversion therapy hoping to protect their child and hold the family together. The research points the other way. The practice tends to communicate a single, wounding message: that the child as they are is unacceptable.
That message has measurable consequences. A foundational 2009 study in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that LGB young adults who experienced high family rejection in adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to have attempted suicide and nearly six times more likely to report high levels of depression than peers from accepting families.
The researchers behind that work, now part of San Francisco State University's Family Acceptance Project, stress a hopeful counterpoint: family acceptance is strongly protective. The factor most within a parent's control, warmth and connection, is also the one that most shields a child.
The Risk to Faith and Community
Conversion therapy is frequently delivered inside religious settings, which is part of what makes its fallout so isolating. The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates that roughly 57,000 youth will undergo change efforts from religious or health care providers before turning 18.
When the practice fails, as the evidence says it will, the young person is often left feeling they have failed God, their family, and their congregation at once. Survivors commonly describe walking away not only from the therapy but from the faith community that endorsed it. The JONAH plaintiffs, raised in devout homes, lived this exact rupture.
It does not have to unfold that way. Faith communities that lead with belonging rather than conditions are far more likely to keep a young person connected to the tradition that shaped them.
The Mental Health and Suicide Risk
The most serious finding is the one families most need to hear. According to The Trevor Project, young people who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt, and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple attempts, than peers who did not.
The Williams Institute reports a parallel pattern in adults: people exposed to conversion therapy had 88% higher odds of attempting suicide at some point in their lives. Nearly 700,000 LGBT adults in the U.S. have undergone the practice, about half of them as adolescents.
The costs ripple outward, too. A 2022 study in JAMA Pediatrics, summarized by The Trevor Project, estimated that conversion therapy and its associated harms cost the United States roughly $9.23 billion annually.
What This Means for Families Today
Ferguson v. JONAH did not end conversion therapy, and the legal landscape keeps shifting. That includes the recent Chiles v. Salazar decision and the patchwork of state laws that protect some minors but not others. What the JONAH verdict did was establish, on the record, that the central promise of conversion therapy is unfounded.
For parents navigating a child's questions about identity, the takeaway is not political. It is practical and protective. The approaches that keep children safest are the ones that keep them connected: to their family, their faith, and their own honesty. You can explore the underlying mental health research, read real stories from families who have walked this road, or start with our free guide for parents seeking a faithful, evidence-based path forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Ferguson v. JONAH a Supreme Court case?
No. It was decided by a jury in the New Jersey Superior Court in 2015. It set no nationwide precedent, but it was the first U.S. case to treat conversion therapy as consumer fraud.
What did the jury decide?
The jury unanimously found JONAH liable for consumer fraud and unconscionable business practices for promising to change clients' sexual orientation, and the organization was ordered to refund clients and shut down.
Is conversion therapy proven to work?
No. The American Psychiatric Association and every major U.S. medical body have concluded there is no reliable evidence that conversion therapy changes sexual orientation or gender identity.
How is conversion therapy linked to suicide risk?
Research from The Trevor Project found that young people subjected to conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who were not.
What can Christian parents do instead?
Families can choose support that prioritizes the relationship, such as pastoral care, family counseling, and honest conversation, rather than programs that promise to change a child. Acceptance is consistently the strongest protective factor.
Recent posts
What Ferguson v. JONAH Revealed About the Real Risks of Conversion Therapy
A New Jersey jury put conversion therapy on trial as consumer fraud, and what surfaced should matter to every family weighing it.
Quick Takeaways
Ferguson v. JONAH was a 2015 New Jersey jury verdict that found a conversion therapy provider liable for consumer fraud. It was the first case of its kind in the United States.
The court ruled that calling homosexuality a disorder that could be "cured" was not just unsupported but legally fraudulent.
Decades of medical research tie conversion therapy to higher rates of depression, family estrangement, and suicide attempts.
For families of faith, the lasting damage is often relational: a child who feels they must choose between being honest and belonging.
When a New Jersey jury delivered its verdict on June 25, 2015, it did something no American court had done before: it judged conversion therapy not as a culture-war talking point, but as a product sold to consumers. In Ferguson v. JONAH, the jury found that an organization promising to turn gay clients straight had committed consumer fraud and engaged in unconscionable business practices.
The case is worth understanding because it pulled the practice into open court, under oath, with evidence. What emerged was a portrait of harm that families considering conversion therapy rarely hear about beforehand.
A Quick Correction: This Was Not a Supreme Court Case
Ferguson v. JONAH is sometimes described as a Supreme Court case. It was not. It was decided by a jury in the New Jersey Superior Court in Hudson County, a state trial court. The distinction matters: the verdict does not bind courts nationwide the way a Supreme Court ruling would.
Its influence comes from a different place. As one analysis in the Northwestern University Law Review put it, the case created no binding precedent but stands as a powerful model for future lawsuits. It showed that consumer protection law could reach a practice that had long avoided scrutiny.
What the JONAH Case Was Actually About
The lawsuit was filed in November 2012 by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of four young men and two of their mothers. The defendant, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality), sold counseling that claimed it could change a person's sexual orientation.
The plaintiffs' stories were notable for their faith backgrounds. Lead plaintiff Michael Ferguson had grown up Mormon; Benjamin Unger and Chaim Levin came from an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. These were not people hostile to religion. They were young men whose families and communities had pointed them toward a "cure."
In a pretrial ruling, the judge made a landmark finding: that homosexuality is not a mental disorder as a matter of law. He compared the opposite claim to the belief that the earth is flat. When the New Jersey jury reached its verdict, JONAH was ordered to refund clients and ultimately to shut down. When its leaders tried to reopen under a new name, a judge ordered it closed again in 2019 and imposed a $3.5 million penalty.
The court declared, for the first time in American history, that homosexuality is not a disorder to be cured. The legal system reached the same conclusion medicine had reached decades earlier.
Why Medicine Had Already Rejected the Premise
Long before the JONAH verdict, the medical field had settled the underlying question. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its diagnostic manual in 1973 and now states there is no sound evidence that conversion efforts work, alongside growing evidence that they cause harm.
That position is not an outlier. Conversion therapy has been rejected by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and every major medical organization. An AMA issue brief notes that federal experts at SAMHSA describe these efforts as coercive and harmful, and not a legitimate part of behavioral health care.
This is the consensus the JONAH court relied on. The judge excluded the testimony of leading conversion therapy proponents precisely because their views rested on the false premise that being gay is an illness.
The Risk to the Family Bond
Many parents pursue conversion therapy hoping to protect their child and hold the family together. The research points the other way. The practice tends to communicate a single, wounding message: that the child as they are is unacceptable.
That message has measurable consequences. A foundational 2009 study in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that LGB young adults who experienced high family rejection in adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to have attempted suicide and nearly six times more likely to report high levels of depression than peers from accepting families.
The researchers behind that work, now part of San Francisco State University's Family Acceptance Project, stress a hopeful counterpoint: family acceptance is strongly protective. The factor most within a parent's control, warmth and connection, is also the one that most shields a child.
The Risk to Faith and Community
Conversion therapy is frequently delivered inside religious settings, which is part of what makes its fallout so isolating. The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates that roughly 57,000 youth will undergo change efforts from religious or health care providers before turning 18.
When the practice fails, as the evidence says it will, the young person is often left feeling they have failed God, their family, and their congregation at once. Survivors commonly describe walking away not only from the therapy but from the faith community that endorsed it. The JONAH plaintiffs, raised in devout homes, lived this exact rupture.
It does not have to unfold that way. Faith communities that lead with belonging rather than conditions are far more likely to keep a young person connected to the tradition that shaped them.
The Mental Health and Suicide Risk
The most serious finding is the one families most need to hear. According to The Trevor Project, young people who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt, and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple attempts, than peers who did not.
The Williams Institute reports a parallel pattern in adults: people exposed to conversion therapy had 88% higher odds of attempting suicide at some point in their lives. Nearly 700,000 LGBT adults in the U.S. have undergone the practice, about half of them as adolescents.
The costs ripple outward, too. A 2022 study in JAMA Pediatrics, summarized by The Trevor Project, estimated that conversion therapy and its associated harms cost the United States roughly $9.23 billion annually.
What This Means for Families Today
Ferguson v. JONAH did not end conversion therapy, and the legal landscape keeps shifting. That includes the recent Chiles v. Salazar decision and the patchwork of state laws that protect some minors but not others. What the JONAH verdict did was establish, on the record, that the central promise of conversion therapy is unfounded.
For parents navigating a child's questions about identity, the takeaway is not political. It is practical and protective. The approaches that keep children safest are the ones that keep them connected: to their family, their faith, and their own honesty. You can explore the underlying mental health research, read real stories from families who have walked this road, or start with our free guide for parents seeking a faithful, evidence-based path forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Ferguson v. JONAH a Supreme Court case?
No. It was decided by a jury in the New Jersey Superior Court in 2015. It set no nationwide precedent, but it was the first U.S. case to treat conversion therapy as consumer fraud.
What did the jury decide?
The jury unanimously found JONAH liable for consumer fraud and unconscionable business practices for promising to change clients' sexual orientation, and the organization was ordered to refund clients and shut down.
Is conversion therapy proven to work?
No. The American Psychiatric Association and every major U.S. medical body have concluded there is no reliable evidence that conversion therapy changes sexual orientation or gender identity.
How is conversion therapy linked to suicide risk?
Research from The Trevor Project found that young people subjected to conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who were not.
What can Christian parents do instead?
Families can choose support that prioritizes the relationship, such as pastoral care, family counseling, and honest conversation, rather than programs that promise to change a child. Acceptance is consistently the strongest protective factor.
Recent posts
What Ferguson v. JONAH Revealed About the Real Risks of Conversion Therapy
A New Jersey jury put conversion therapy on trial as consumer fraud, and what surfaced should matter to every family weighing it.
Quick Takeaways
Ferguson v. JONAH was a 2015 New Jersey jury verdict that found a conversion therapy provider liable for consumer fraud. It was the first case of its kind in the United States.
The court ruled that calling homosexuality a disorder that could be "cured" was not just unsupported but legally fraudulent.
Decades of medical research tie conversion therapy to higher rates of depression, family estrangement, and suicide attempts.
For families of faith, the lasting damage is often relational: a child who feels they must choose between being honest and belonging.
When a New Jersey jury delivered its verdict on June 25, 2015, it did something no American court had done before: it judged conversion therapy not as a culture-war talking point, but as a product sold to consumers. In Ferguson v. JONAH, the jury found that an organization promising to turn gay clients straight had committed consumer fraud and engaged in unconscionable business practices.
The case is worth understanding because it pulled the practice into open court, under oath, with evidence. What emerged was a portrait of harm that families considering conversion therapy rarely hear about beforehand.
A Quick Correction: This Was Not a Supreme Court Case
Ferguson v. JONAH is sometimes described as a Supreme Court case. It was not. It was decided by a jury in the New Jersey Superior Court in Hudson County, a state trial court. The distinction matters: the verdict does not bind courts nationwide the way a Supreme Court ruling would.
Its influence comes from a different place. As one analysis in the Northwestern University Law Review put it, the case created no binding precedent but stands as a powerful model for future lawsuits. It showed that consumer protection law could reach a practice that had long avoided scrutiny.
What the JONAH Case Was Actually About
The lawsuit was filed in November 2012 by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of four young men and two of their mothers. The defendant, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality), sold counseling that claimed it could change a person's sexual orientation.
The plaintiffs' stories were notable for their faith backgrounds. Lead plaintiff Michael Ferguson had grown up Mormon; Benjamin Unger and Chaim Levin came from an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. These were not people hostile to religion. They were young men whose families and communities had pointed them toward a "cure."
In a pretrial ruling, the judge made a landmark finding: that homosexuality is not a mental disorder as a matter of law. He compared the opposite claim to the belief that the earth is flat. When the New Jersey jury reached its verdict, JONAH was ordered to refund clients and ultimately to shut down. When its leaders tried to reopen under a new name, a judge ordered it closed again in 2019 and imposed a $3.5 million penalty.
The court declared, for the first time in American history, that homosexuality is not a disorder to be cured. The legal system reached the same conclusion medicine had reached decades earlier.
Why Medicine Had Already Rejected the Premise
Long before the JONAH verdict, the medical field had settled the underlying question. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its diagnostic manual in 1973 and now states there is no sound evidence that conversion efforts work, alongside growing evidence that they cause harm.
That position is not an outlier. Conversion therapy has been rejected by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and every major medical organization. An AMA issue brief notes that federal experts at SAMHSA describe these efforts as coercive and harmful, and not a legitimate part of behavioral health care.
This is the consensus the JONAH court relied on. The judge excluded the testimony of leading conversion therapy proponents precisely because their views rested on the false premise that being gay is an illness.
The Risk to the Family Bond
Many parents pursue conversion therapy hoping to protect their child and hold the family together. The research points the other way. The practice tends to communicate a single, wounding message: that the child as they are is unacceptable.
That message has measurable consequences. A foundational 2009 study in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that LGB young adults who experienced high family rejection in adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to have attempted suicide and nearly six times more likely to report high levels of depression than peers from accepting families.
The researchers behind that work, now part of San Francisco State University's Family Acceptance Project, stress a hopeful counterpoint: family acceptance is strongly protective. The factor most within a parent's control, warmth and connection, is also the one that most shields a child.
The Risk to Faith and Community
Conversion therapy is frequently delivered inside religious settings, which is part of what makes its fallout so isolating. The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates that roughly 57,000 youth will undergo change efforts from religious or health care providers before turning 18.
When the practice fails, as the evidence says it will, the young person is often left feeling they have failed God, their family, and their congregation at once. Survivors commonly describe walking away not only from the therapy but from the faith community that endorsed it. The JONAH plaintiffs, raised in devout homes, lived this exact rupture.
It does not have to unfold that way. Faith communities that lead with belonging rather than conditions are far more likely to keep a young person connected to the tradition that shaped them.
The Mental Health and Suicide Risk
The most serious finding is the one families most need to hear. According to The Trevor Project, young people who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt, and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple attempts, than peers who did not.
The Williams Institute reports a parallel pattern in adults: people exposed to conversion therapy had 88% higher odds of attempting suicide at some point in their lives. Nearly 700,000 LGBT adults in the U.S. have undergone the practice, about half of them as adolescents.
The costs ripple outward, too. A 2022 study in JAMA Pediatrics, summarized by The Trevor Project, estimated that conversion therapy and its associated harms cost the United States roughly $9.23 billion annually.
What This Means for Families Today
Ferguson v. JONAH did not end conversion therapy, and the legal landscape keeps shifting. That includes the recent Chiles v. Salazar decision and the patchwork of state laws that protect some minors but not others. What the JONAH verdict did was establish, on the record, that the central promise of conversion therapy is unfounded.
For parents navigating a child's questions about identity, the takeaway is not political. It is practical and protective. The approaches that keep children safest are the ones that keep them connected: to their family, their faith, and their own honesty. You can explore the underlying mental health research, read real stories from families who have walked this road, or start with our free guide for parents seeking a faithful, evidence-based path forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Ferguson v. JONAH a Supreme Court case?
No. It was decided by a jury in the New Jersey Superior Court in 2015. It set no nationwide precedent, but it was the first U.S. case to treat conversion therapy as consumer fraud.
What did the jury decide?
The jury unanimously found JONAH liable for consumer fraud and unconscionable business practices for promising to change clients' sexual orientation, and the organization was ordered to refund clients and shut down.
Is conversion therapy proven to work?
No. The American Psychiatric Association and every major U.S. medical body have concluded there is no reliable evidence that conversion therapy changes sexual orientation or gender identity.
How is conversion therapy linked to suicide risk?
Research from The Trevor Project found that young people subjected to conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who were not.
What can Christian parents do instead?
Families can choose support that prioritizes the relationship, such as pastoral care, family counseling, and honest conversation, rather than programs that promise to change a child. Acceptance is consistently the strongest protective factor.