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.
“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"
打印版本
RSS Feed: 
读者回应
is it just me or did he treat the boy like nothing more than just a lab rat?
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.
Post 4...we're talkin' Murka 1970s here, you aint a real boy less'n ya play with guns. Real guns that is.
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.
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.
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!
R.I.P Kirk.
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.
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!!!!
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
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...
...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.
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?
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.
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.
请先登入再使用此功能。