National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality

The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is an organisation that promotes and provides reparative therapy as a means for homosexuals to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual. They are a small group of around a thousand mental health professionals.

Origins
NARTH was founded in 1992 by three therapists, Joseph Nicolosi, Charles Socarides, and Benjamin Kaufman. They were founded because they disagreed with the decision to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM), and they felt that the reason for its removal was political, rather than based on scientific enquiry.

The Purpose of NARTH
One of the aims of NARTH is to get homosexuality reclassified as a mental disorder. They aim to provide therapy to gay and lesbian people who are unhappy with their sexual orientation, and promote the idea of choosing to change. They are a secular organisation, unlike most ex-gay groups, and do not explicitly promote a religious agenda. Another aim of NARTH's is to demonstrate that there is no genetic basis for homosexuality.

Controversy over Dr. Gerald Schoenewolf's article
Dr. Gerald Schoenewolf, one contributor to NARTH, famously wrote an article in which he claimed that:

"With all due respect, there is another way, or other ways, to look at the race issue in America. It could be pointed out, for example, that Africa at the time of slavery was still primarily a jungle, as yet uncivilized or industrialized. Life there was savage, as savage as the jungle for most people, and that it was the Africans themselves who first enslaved their own people. They sold their own people to other countries, and those brought to Europe, South America, America, and other countries, were in many ways better off than they had been in Africa. But if one even begins to say these things one is quickly shouted down as though one were a complete madman." -- Religious Tolerance

This provoked outrage from many people, including the National Black Justics Coalition. NARTH removed the article and issued a disclaimer on their website.