Jon Stewart Plugs NASW in Comedy Central Segment

Posted by GWright on 6/24/14 • Categorized as Media Watch

Jon Stewart. Photo courtesy of Salon.com.

Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, on June 17 gave the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) a plug in a TV segment on so-called gay “reparative therapy.”

The Texas Republican Party recently adopted a platform that supports gay reparative therapy, which is a treatment of prayer and psychotherapy that can allegedly convert gays and lesbians to a heterosexual lifestyle.

The National Association of Social Workers in 2000 issued a position statement that said gay reparative therapy does not work and in fact psychologically damaged people.

On his program Stewart displayed mental health organizations that had discredited such therapy and NASW was front and center (see image below).

Screenshot courtesy of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Stewart also said Exodus International, one of the main organizations that did reparative therapy, has closed and its former leader Alan Chambers has apologized for the pain his program caused.

“Given that all reputable psychologists and doctors have repudiated reparative therapy and that the largest purveyor of reparative therapy has even apologized for the damage they have caused, why would Texas teach the controversy, so to speak?,” Stewart asked.

Social workers are committed to equal treatment for all, including members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. To learn more visit the National Association of Social Workers “Diversity and Equity” website.

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Tagged as: Comedy Central, gay, gay reparative therapy, Jon Stewart, National Association of Social Workers, social workers, Texas

2 Comments

Kathryn Gurland, LCSW
June 26, 2014 • 12:56 pm

Thanks Greg for posting this!!
I was watching The Daily Show that night and hit “replay” when I saw the NASW logo on the screen, because I almost couldn’t believe it. 😉 I was super psyched when I confirmed that it was, indeed, the NASW logo!!
Yay for Jon Stewart’s research team that discovered a wide variety of clinicians had repudiated this so called “reparative therapy,” because way too often it is only doctors or psychologists that are referred to with issues concerning mental health.
It felt so great to see our profession acknowledged for something other than child welfare and adoption.

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