Amazon has removed books by a ‘gay cure’ conversion therapy author.

Joseph Nicolosi penned a book that spread the dangerous and harmful practice of attempting to ‘cure’ a person’s sexual or gender identity.

He was the co-founder of the National Association of Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and a prominent leader in the ex-gay movement.

His book, A Parent’s Guide To Preventing Homosexuality, is one of the most well known ‘conversion therapy’ books.

But now, it has been removed from the UK and US versions of Amazon.

Rojo Alan, from Peterborough, wrote to Amazon several times to get the book removed from listings.

He previously went through conversion therapy himself as a young child.

Failing to get the right response, he engaged with others to leave negative reviews on the website. Quickly, the rating fell from four stars to two stars.

‘I looked into the “rules of publishing” on Amazon, to see what sort of things they allow and don’t allow,’ he said.

‘Once I wrapped my head around that I started to look into the laws of conversion therapy. The legal side of things.

‘Once I gathered everything I went back to Amazon and I threw all the information I had at them in several conversations. Yet I was given the same “we will refer this to the relevant team”. Again it felt hopeless and I wasn’t too sure what else I could do.’

But, sure enough, Amazon removed all of the English language books by Nicolosi. It took Alan three months from the first email to removing the books.

‘Huge step’

‘These books were “how to” books,’ Alan told Gay Star News, also describing it as a ‘huge step in the right direction’.

‘These were books that were lying to parents on how they could cure their children from being gay or trans. It’s lying because it’s actually just a form of abuse.

‘The books went into ways in which you can mentally and physically abuse your child.

‘If this helps anyone from being harmed, that would be a good reason to do it.’

Nicolosi died in 2017.

He was previously quoted in a documentary: ‘Everyone is heterosexual.’

‘The idea that some people are naturally homosexual, or naturally gay, is just a social construct.’

He also said: ‘So when you have individuals with same-sex attraction, we it as something went wrong developmentally and we try to resolve the issue and put them back on the path toward their natural heterosexuality.’

The World Psychiatric Association has condemned so-called ‘gay cure’ conversion therapy.

The group said they consider sexual orientation to be ‘innate’. They also said it is determined by ‘biological, psychological, developmental and social factors’.

‘WPA believes strongly in evidence-based treatment,’ they also said.

‘There is no sound scientific evidence that innate sexual orientation can be changed.

‘Furthermore, so-called treatments of homosexuality can create a setting in which prejudice and discrimination flourish, and they can be potentially harmful … The provision of any intervention purporting to “treat” something that is not a disorder is wholly unethical.’