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9 Jun 2011

Watch: CNN interviews family of troubled gay man who underwent 'The Sissy Boy Experiment'

Relatives of Kirk Murphy, who took his own life in 2003 at age 38, reveals the damage done to their brother who at age 5 was enrolled in an experimental programme run by discredited psychologist George Rekers to 'treat' his feminine behaviour.

In May 2010, the Miami New Times broke a story about one of America's most prominent anti-gay activists and reparative therapy champion George Alan Rekers returning from a 10-day trip to Europe with a 20-year-old male escort. Rekers denied they had any sexual contact and the escort was hired to carry his luggage, the escort however admitted to giving him sexual massages.

Reporters Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp, who wrote the Miami New Times story last year, uncovered the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, who killed himself in 2003 when he was 38. 

In a report titled “Before he hired an escort, Rekers tried to spank the gay away”, they found that the discredited psychologist ran a government-funded programme at UCLA called the Feminine Boy Project in the early 1970s.

“In 1974, Rekers, a leading thinker in the so-called ex-gay movement, was presented with a 4-year-old ‘effeminate boy’ named ‘Kraig,’ whose parents had enrolled him in the program. Rekers put ‘Kraig’ in a "play-observation room" with his mother, who was equipped with a listening device. When the boy played with girly toys, the doctors instructed her to avert her eyes from the child.

Discredited psychologist George Alan Rekers made headlines last year when the Miami New Times exposed the ex-gay leader as having hired a male escort for a 10-trip to Europe.

“Rekers's research team continued the experiment in the family's home. ‘Kraig’ received red chips for feminine behavior and blue chips for masculine behavior. The blue chips could be cashed in for candy or television time. The red chips earned him a "swat" or spanking from his father.”

After two years, Rekers declared the “treatment” a success as ‘Kraig's’ feminine behavior was gone and he became "indistinguishable from any other boy."

Over the several decades, Rekers wrote about ‘Kraig’ as "the poster boy for behavioral treatment of boyhood effeminacy."

Rekers also co-founded the Family Research Council in 1981 alongside James Dobson, and was a board member of the psychologically dubious organisation, the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) until news of going o

He even received US$120,000 to appear as a state "expert witness" in a Florida lawsuit against the idea of gay parenting, calling gay dads and lesbian moms dangerous.

But at age 38, this “poster child” – who had spent eight years in the United States Air Force – was so depressed and disturbed he committed suicide while he was living in New Delhi, India and working for an American finance company .

"I used to spend so much time thinking, why would he kill himself at the age of 38? It doesn't make any sense to me," said Kirk's sister, Maris Murphy, in the AC360 special report: The Sissy Boy Experiment.

"What I now think is I don't know how he made it that long."

Their mother, Kaytee Murphy, remembers being concerned when her 5-year-old son when he was “playing with dolls and stuff.”

"Playing with the girls' toys, and probably picking up little effeminate, well, like stroking the hair, the long hair and stuff. It just bothered me that maybe he was picking up maybe too many feminine traits."

Then she saw a psychologist on local television recruiting boys for a government-funded program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"He was naming all of these things; 'If your son is doing five of these 10 things, does he prefer to play with girls' toys instead of boys' toys?' Just things like this," she said.

So she decided to enroll Kirk and “nip it in the bud, before it got started any further." Kirk was treated largely by Rekers who was a doctoral student at the time.

The first of the 3-part story was aired on Jun 7 in the US.


Part 1 of "The Sissy Boy Experiment"


Part 2 of "The Sissy Boy Experiment"


Part 3 of "The Sissy Boy Experiment"

读者回应

1. 2011-06-09 16:43  
in my opinion what Rekers did was both irresponsible and misleading, or even ethical.

is it just me or did he treat the boy like nothing more than just a lab rat?
修改於2011-06-09 16:44:36
2. 2011-06-09 20:56  
I'm probably gonna get lotsa thumbs down for my comment, but sometimes I wished there would be a miracle 'cure' for homosexuality, just to make things much simpler in life..
3. 2011-06-09 21:15  
Disturbing and tragic. Hopefully, there's a cure for heterosexual stupidity in the near future.
4. 2011-06-09 21:24  
I wont blame the therapist. the parents brought him to them, hoping they could "cure" him. his mom brought him to the therapist, his dad beat him so he could be a man.

I mean cmon. if you love your boy trully, you wont do that. he's just prefer to play dolls than toy guns, he wasnt being an abusive boy who like to kill a cat or other animal. he's just playing a doll for heaven sake.


修改於2011-06-09 21:25:17
5. 2011-06-09 22:00  
i was angry and sad when i was watching this news. but besides that gay doctor, shouldnt his parents be thinking about sharing some responsibilities? isnt this just another rendition of "Pray for Bobby"? The Doc, against all odds, is just an easy prey with which we can find fault.
6. 2011-06-09 22:01  
Post 2...I used to think life must be easier for heterosexually orientated people, but I came to realise they have just the same sort of emotional and relationship challenges as we do. Of course we have additional challenges because of discrimination, but it would be wrong to think that heterosexuals have it easy simply because they are heterosexual. They themselves certainly don't think they have it easy!.........One of the sad things about this Rekers story is that discredited "treatment" that has its roots in his cruel, and as it turns out, totally ineffective experiments on children is still being touted via his organisation "NARTH", and others such as Focus on the Family, against the advice of all professional organisations. Children and adults are still being endangered by religiously motivated "therapists" who ignore all proper professional advice....

Post 4...we're talkin' Murka 1970s here, you aint a real boy less'n ya play with guns. Real guns that is.
修改於2011-06-09 22:18:41
7. 2011-06-09 22:15  
Post 5....it's not that the family don't see their own role in it, but they are shocked to discover that what they know actually destroyed their son's life, has been touted as a huge success in around 20 publications by this guy and the anti-gay industry...who they didn't even know was the one treating their son; and he wasn't a doctor, he was just a student in his early 20s doing a thesis. This guy's whole reputation was actually built around a set of lies. Other experiments allegedly done at this time at the university also included using cattle prods on children. I think the university will be having to answer some very embarrassing questions.
8. 2011-06-09 22:34  
@Post#2 by Seanadlt - You can't "cure" homosexuality because it isn't a disorder or a disease, it is nature, just like you can't "cure" being born Asian, or being born left handed, or being born tall, or any other intrinsic trait. Embrace it or damn yourself to a life of self doubt.
9. 2011-06-09 22:53  
extremely disturb! but the parent to be blame! wtf!
回应#10於於2011-08-13 17:26被作者删除。
11. 2011-06-09 23:31  
Wow - I had an almost identical pair of pants when I was that age - just found a photo of me wearing them - to think I was once that size, oyyy.

I also had the same exaxt toy soldiers set - it was awesome - I used to run to the toy dept to look at the box it was in and pray my parents would buy it for me for Christmas ( they did ).

Thankfully, I never played with dolls - I know my parents would have never tolerated it - and never wanted to - why would I when there were trucks and soldiers - OMG - maybe that is why I so like sexy men in uniform and truckdrivers today.

12. 2011-06-10 01:30  
Spare me the homogeneity, because i embrace variety
13. 2011-06-10 01:53  
I am not siding with the psychologist, but like he said you can't blame him. To make this accusation you would need scientific research. Seeing as the time he, Kraig, grew up in was difficult for gays in the States it is possible due to the time and his families views on homosexuality could have played a vital role. I am not diminishing the role of the psychologist, but I am saying we can't but the majority of the blame on him.
14. 2011-06-10 03:15  
Isn't this the more the fault of the parents than the psychologist? They are the ones who decided to send him to that treatment place and make him undergo 'treatment'. They have been so misinformed.....
15. 2011-06-10 04:47  
Reminds me of a certain Malaysian state sending "effeminate" boys into some special camps...
16. 2011-06-10 05:17  
UCLA should be ashamed of themselves and Dr. Rekers should count himself lucky he is not facing criminal and civil charges for causing the mental break down and eventual suicide of Kirk Murphy. If Kirk was such a poster boy where the Hell was this monster when his creation was coming unglued. Honestly if Dr. Rekers is going to escape criminal prosecution his family needs to to pursue a civil judgment to financial wreak him so he and his movement never do this again!!
17. 2011-06-10 05:19  
Made in USA!
18. 2011-06-10 07:14  
omg.
19. 2011-06-10 07:48  
posts #7 & #8:

obviously we are all aware that there is no "cure" for homosexuality. I was simply commenting on the ideality of there having one. It is quite easy for some to comment on embracing the gay lifestyle and culture coz acceptance is generally more prevalent in the western society as compared to the asian counterparts, where it is still considered a taboo topic.

In saying that, yes I have not embraced my sexuality even till today and is still living in self-doubt.
20. 2011-06-10 08:28  
Seanadlt, I believe that as long as one is hoping for a cure for homosexuality or in any way thinks that would be an ideal outcome, he/she would be unlikely to fully accept one-self.
21. 2011-06-10 09:46  
this should be a lessons learned.
22. 2011-06-10 10:40  
It was a different time. It is easy for us to look at this and raged with disbelief. But if you were a parent in that era, how different things would be?

We are not Kirk's family and we don't know what they have to go through. Furthermore not everyone express regret in the same manner. As for Rekers & UCLA, they should publicly apologize for what they did and right the wrongs they've committed. UCLA should put policies in place to prevent similar blunder in the future and sponsor community projects and other researches to teach acceptance and cure for AIDS.

As the rest of us, it is just too easy to point fingers! How many personal ads you've seen on this site or others say things like "No Sissy", "No Chub", "No Asian/White/Indian"? Too many! On one hand, we fight discrimination against the world, on the other, too many of us a bigot.

I do my part by living my life openly. Everyone close to me: friends, family, colleague, know I am gay. By leading a healthy lifestyle and be good at what I do in life, I am educating many of my straight friends who have children that gay men are not all what local newspapers portray us to be! (in the gay community, it is indeed: no news is good news!!) Maybe one day, a few of them will face with sexuality issue with their children, and I know (or hope) they will do the right thing!
回应#23於於2011-06-10 11:10被作者删除。
24. 2011-06-10 11:11  
This story...gives new meaning to the phrase "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." If anything, let this be a warning what kind of path one can go into and how it destroys lives if one does not keep his / her ego in check.

R.I.P Kirk.
25. 2011-06-10 11:11  
1: Poor guy
2: I hate that the doctors a gay hypocrite, especially with a young escort boy.
3: Yes, the parents was irresponislbe but this was a situation that was more than 30+ yrs ago...the differences of what is now PC/normal was quite different back then. Parents feared that theyre child is sick or abnormal... they did what they thought was best for their child though it proved detrimental.
4: many people are in the wrong here.
26. 2011-06-10 11:36  
it's the mother's fault, she suppose to love her kid unconditionally, she should know her kid better than any one else because it is from her womb!
i play dolls when i was a kid, i had a colorful childhood. my little lesbian sister was afraid of dolls when she was little she preferred to play boy toys. still we were loved by our parents unconditionally...

i am so sad, very very sad to hear the story of this queer little boy,.

this psychologist is the one who is mentally sick, his license should be revoked!!!!
回应#27於於2011-06-10 11:38被作者删除。
28. 2011-06-10 12:10  
This was very sad for me to watch. I used to mentally torture myself for being gay. Now, if I think if I could be reincarnated, I would want to come back as a self accepting gay! I would do a much better job and would have had a very happy youth!
29. 2011-06-10 12:13  
Guys, everything must be placed in historical perspective. What Rekers did appalls us now, but when he conducted the experiment, it was 1970! Feminism was just starting to make an impact in academia at that time. It would take another 20 years or so before the respect for gender differences finally became part of liberal thinking.
30. 2011-06-10 12:19  
Hey, you must remember that this happened in 1970 when it was widely believed that homosexuality was an environmental problem. Dont go judging the decisions made then in the light of 2011 knowledge of the reasons for homosexuality.

The same argument doesnt apply to a recent 'experiment' in the de-feminising of young muslim men in Malaysia. That experiment is the result of incredible ignorance and worse the refusal to learn, a total intolerance of personailties which vary from the Mohd's fantasy ideal and the overwhelming belief by most muslims that they have the right to dictate how another person should behave
31. 2011-06-10 14:52  
i hope this occurrence will be an eye-opener to all mothers out....
32. 2011-06-10 14:59  
I can't help but wonder what relevance his childhood experience had on his suicide in adult life. Of course, it's very easy to look at what the doctor's dubious experiments were doing - frankly, who'd choose to go down the Beatings From Daddy route as a kid, given a choice? - which, today, no serious psychologist would undertake.

However, although it was a ridiculous thing to have done to any child, it can't be said with absolute certainty that That's why Mr Murphy unfortunately killed himself in later life. Was he depressed? Had he any financial problems, or any addictions? Maybe he hated where he lived? Who can say?

Yes, it would be convenient to pin all his adult problems in later life on something bad in his childhood, and that would certainly be something that could give his family some answers, and something to cling to.

But... life is more complex than that... and there are many adults getting on with their lives, who may have one, two, three or more Awful experiences behind them - like Me (I have Lots of terrible things in my life story; I was blind for a while as a kid after just one too-far bullying incident, as just one such story; that's why my eyesight is poor as an adult, and hopeless in my right eye) - and yet, you get on with life, and Don't let these things drag you down, or become the defining point of Who you are, or How you live.

So, as stupid as that doctor/hypocrite was, I just don't think it can be definitely said that He's why Mr Murphy killed himself, all those years later. We just aren't presented with the whole story - something which, unfortunately, only Mr Murphy would know, and could tell us...
修改於2011-06-10 15:06:07
33. 2011-06-10 17:28  
Saw last night's part 3 on CNN about a much more recent case by Reker's colleague at NARTH, Nicolosi. It was almost as devastating except at least the guy is still alive.These cases are still going on.

...Hi Vercoda (32), I understand what you mean, but maybe you need to listen again to what the brother and sister are saying, they are very clear about the effects on their brother, and you need to take into account the attempted suicide by Kirk at age 18, when he felt so guilty after having sex for the first time....Bottom line, Rekers, Nicolosi and NARTH have been hailing the case as a huge success. It was a devastating failure. Religion plays a large part in the thinking of this organisation. The rest of the profession has been warning of the potential damage for some time.
34. 2011-06-10 20:56  
Doesn't the 'straight-acting' guys in the community assign 'red' and 'blue' chips for the effeminate and camp guys too? its just they don't call it that.
35. 2011-06-10 21:29  
What an absolutely disgraceful way to treat any human being. The father was clearly a monster in his over-zealous beatings. The mother was too weak. And that so called doctor. OMG. How could he be allowed to say his treatment was a success on the basis of one result. Clearly he is in denial about his own feelings towards men and took it out on an innocent child. All those involved and still living ought to be punished.
36. 2011-06-11 01:13  
What will u choose: living a lie or not living at all?

To those who say life is precious, count yourself lucky. To some, life is just a cruel bitch and it is full of shit. Some of you would say "Be gay and be proud", I'm not sure if I can say the same. Ironically, I'm more accepted in the hetero world by pretending to be straight than being my gay self in the homo world. The rejection from the gays has accumulated to such an unbearable point. There's not a day that I haven't thought of ending myself. Like his sister said, sometimes I just don't know how I can make it this long.

So, what's the point of living if u r not accepted by others, and ultimately, by yourself?
37. 2011-06-11 03:07  
hey, Wanderlusts (22) I want to agree with you. As a community, we are not very accepting of people who are different within our community. We all have preferences, however, it is fine to voice them. Maybe we are not attracted to fat people or hairy people, or feminine guys, but what I often see is a repulsion toward different types, especially to those who are feminine.

This repulsion is, I believe, rooted in one's own lack of self-acceptance. A person comfortable with their sexuality can value and respect all types. An insecure person will reject others and put himself in a "more acceptable" category.
38. 2011-06-11 12:36  
wow.. This is unbelievable.. How could they be so mean to a him?..
39. 2011-06-12 00:12  
Frankly, George Rekers himself should check himself in to the "sissy boy experiment".
40. 2011-06-12 13:15  
If only there was a parenting exam before being allowed to bring a new human being into the world, then disturbing situations like this could be avoided. If we need to check eligibility for adoption then surely the same or even more rigorous rules should apply to people who perhaps don't even want to have a child!
Growing up in that era was difficult enough with homophobia at almost every turn: uncles, neighbors, the media - we were constantly being told how wrong it was to be ourselves. I am one of the lucky one's whose parents didn't give a damn about those opinions and gave me the courage to be open about my sexuality in all areas of my life, a chance to be happy. In general people are like sheep, following the group, I am happy to be different and I wish anyone who is still suffering in the dark the courage to come into the light.
41. 2011-06-12 16:21  
Interesting interviews by CNN! Thanks to Anderson Cooper!
42. 2011-06-16 06:05  
This is just really sad. There will be NO TREATMENT for something you are born with and actually a GIFT from GOD!
43. 2011-06-16 22:43  
theres a misnomer that many seem to use that needs to be commented on here"embracing the gay lifestyle and culture" often you read utter crap about the so called "gay life style" it's an untruthful derogatory phrase created by the right wing and homophobic propagandists but there is no ONE 'gay life style or culture', you can choose any damn 'gay life style' or approach to life you like there's simply NOT the same fit for all thankfully, some of us are quite selective we arn't all 'low down rampant queers' alot of us are quite decent human beings who DO represent alot of worth in our humanity.
44. 2011-06-20 04:07  
this physcologist jus screamed gay all over him!blame parents for enrolling in the ridiculous "treatment" in the first place.
45. 2011-06-20 04:07  
this physcologist jus screamed gay all over him!blame parents for enrolling in the ridiculous "treatment" in the first place.
46. 2011-06-20 04:07  
this physcologist jus screamed gay all over him!blame parents for enrolling in the ridiculous "treatment" in the first place.

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