The Unspeakable Torture of Gay Men at the Hands of the Mormon Church – (Video)

In 1975, the Brigham Young University Psychology Department administrators organized a Board of Review for Psychotherapeutic Techniques to recommend “policies governing the use of sensitive treatment techniques” on campus. Within a year, the review board had assembled a list of eight therapies being used at BYU which “could conflict” with church teachings. However, most of the therapies were not stopped (including electric shock, vomiting aversion, and the use of pornographic materials).

Gary Bergera interviewed Gerald Dye, chair of the University Standards office, in February 1978, and Dye reported what the “set process” was for “homosexual students referred to Standards” for counseling:

They are asked to a personal interview with Standards…to determine the depth or extent of involvement; previous involvement, if any, of offender; does the student understand the seriousness of the matter; if the branch president or bishop [is] aware. The individual’s branch president or home bishop is contacted. Standards is to determine if the offense is serious or not a. serious: repetition; anal/oral intercourse. b. less serious: experimential [sic]; mutual masturbation. Action taken. If determined to be serious, the student is expelled. If less serious, the student may remain at BYU on a probationary basis. Standards also acts as an intermediary between the student who remains and counseling service; Students who remain are required to undergo therapy. [164]



Although “therapy” was required for homosexual students, Dye promised Bergera that “no student working through Standards will ever undergo aversion therapy” He lied.

Gay men were referred there by bishops, stake presidents and, for BYU students, the standards committee. Teen boys as young as 15 were sent there by their bishops. BYU students were told that they’d either have to go through the “aversion therapy” or leave BYU. This torture went on for 15-20 years.

The 1976 study at Brigham Young, “Effect of Visual Stimuli in Electric Aversion Therapy,” was written by Max Ford McBride, then a graduate student in the psychology department.

A mercury-filled tube was placed around the base of the penis to measure the level of stimulation he experienced when viewing nude images of men and women.

Shocks, given in three 10-second intervals, were then administered in conjunction with certain images.

Others were given chemical compounds, which were administered through an IV and caused subjects to vomit when they were stimulated.

When discovered the Mormon church stopped all conversion practices at BYU and refereed its homosexual students and other gay church members to Evergreen International located in Salt Lake City, Utah, whose stated mission was to assist “people who want to diminish same-sex attractions and overcome homosexual behavior” and the horror stories persisted of abuse and torture.

Although it functioned independently of any church, Evergreen was religiously based on the teachings of the LDS Church. Though not affiliated with the Church, the organization adhered to its teachings “without reservation or exception.” Evergreen had emeritus general authorities on its board of trustees and taught LDS Church principles to Latter-day Saints and ecclesiastical leaders by working with the Church as well as by hosting various events, such as firesides (informal evening gatherings of church members), workshops, and conferences.

On September 19, 2009, Bruce C. Hafen, a general authority of the LDS Church, spoke at Evergreen’s annual conference at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, a venue owned by the LDS Church.

This little seen documentary was part of a Masters Thesis project at a Major University in the Northwest. And chronicles the stories of the tortured men who experienced the brutality at the hands of the Mormon Church