The Aversion Project was a
medical torture programme in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
led by Dr.
Aubrey Levin during
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
. The project identified gay soldiers and
conscripts
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
who used drugs in the
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...
s (SADF). Victims were forced to submit to "curing" their
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
because the SADF considered
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
to be subversive, and those who were homosexual were subject to punishment.
In 1995, the
South African Medical Association
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) is a non-statutory, professional association for public- and private-sector medical practitioners in South Africa. Registered as a non-profit organisation it acts as a trade union for its public-secto ...
issued a public apology for past wrongdoings.
History
During the
Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
Era in South Africa, there existed a dual policy on homosexuality in the South African military. This dual policy consisted of two major components, which prohibited permanent members of the force from being homosexual, while permitting homosexuality amongst
conscripts
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
. The dual policy was adopted because officials believed that completely banning homosexuality from the military would give a specific group of individuals – young, white South African men – a convenient way to avoid serving in the military. Thus, the dual policy was adopted and enforced. However, with the supposed toleration of homosexuality came forced 'therapy,' such as compulsion shock therapy, castration, and other forms of 'therapy' which were said to significantly violate basic human rights.
Between 1971 and 1989, victims were submitted to
chemical castration
Chemical castration is castration via anaphrodisiac drugs, whether to reduce libido and sexual activity, to treat cancer, or otherwise. Unlike surgical castration, where the gonads are removed through an incision in the body, and
electric shock treatment
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...
meant to cure them of their homosexuality.
This trend was supported by psychiatrists - who thought that homosexuals were mentally ill, a claim stated in the American Psychiatric Associations "Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders".
Conscripts with this proclaimed 'mental illness' were treated differently than other members of the military. They were not given military leadership positions, and they were not entrusted with sensitive information.
During the course of the shock therapy, treatment electrodes were strapped to the upper arm with wires, then run through a dial calibrated from 1 to 10, varying the current. Homosexual soldiers were shown black and white pictures of a naked man and were encouraged to fantasize, at which point the person-in-charge would administer a shock if the soldiers showed any form of sexual response. The voltage was increased throughout the treatment if the soldiers continued to exhibit sexual responses. The patient would then be shown a coloured picture of a woman, which was supposed to stimulate arousal. However, more often than not this failed.
As a result of these failures, there is also evidence that
sexual realignment procedures took place on the people who were unable to be 'cured.'
Due to the lack of scientific evidence to prove that these procedures have the ability to alter sexuality, these "therapies" began declining in frequency during the 1970's, when treatment for homosexual soldiers was no longer supported by the field of mental health.
Consequently, the definition of homosexuals as mentally ill was removed from the
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involv ...
s manual in 1973, and the treatment was left behind.
The Aversion Research Project
The Aversion Research Project was formed by a team of academic researchers and activists, who came together in order to obtain more information about the treatment of homosexual military personnel during the apartheid era. This was a research project based on qualitative methodology, further examining why homosexuality was considered to be unusual behaviour at that time. Various homosexual individuals – who were targets of the conversion therapy – along with their families and friends were interviewed in order to obtain in-depth, first-hand experiences of those directly impacted.
Prior to the project, the researchers had to be approved by a research committee. The research committee, however, took issue with the use of the word abuse''
' as a way of describing what happened to homosexual military personnel. The research committee believed that considering the conversion 'therapy' to be abuse was only an assumption, unsupported by factual evidence.
Therefore, the term ''abuse'', when used in the research project, had to be supported with factual evidence. Additionally, the research ethics committee did not agree with the researchers' designation of the actions of psychologists initiating this conversion shock therapy as a human rights violation. This raised concerns about the research project, as the committee clearly did not want this to be an investigation into the practices of medical officials involved in the military. Furthermore, the committee questioned the sampling methods of the researchers. Because researchers would be accepting volunteers, the committee found that the sampling method used would not be representative of the experience as a whole.
Aubrey Levin
Aubrey Levin was the leader of the project against homosexual military personnel. He argued that the same type of procedures could cure other groups. These included
drug addicts and the "disturbed" (those who did not want to serve in the apartheid military). He started the project and then ran Ward 22 at 1 Military Hospital, in
Voortrekkerhoogte, which is where majority of the patients were treated. He was one of 24 other doctors that were warned by the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid. Authorised by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses ...
that what they were doing was a violation of human rights, and that they risked being labelled as perpetrators of human rights abuses.
Levin claimed that all patients were volunteers.
Since then, Levin has been accused of several more instances of medical foul practice, targeting many other men (not only those who identified as homosexual). He was sentenced to a five-year prison term on April 23, 2014.
Post-project
After it became noticeable that the conversion therapy was failing, staff came up with an alternative. As a result, patients who had failed the initial treatment were subjected to a sex change. This included being put through
surgery and being given a new identity.
Patients would then be discharged from the military, and advised to cut themselves off from family and friends. As many as 900 homosexuals, mostly 16–24 year-olds who had been
drafted, were subjected to surgical procedures to alter their genitals, and given birth certificates to fit their modified anatomy. This surgery was done in military hospitals, and a high rate of patients died during surgery. Additionally, the reassignments were often left incomplete, leaving patients with halfway-finished procedures.
After being discharged, there were no follow-up appointments to complete the surgeries or check on the patients' mental and physical health. Without adequate mental preparation for such a significant personal change, patients also faced depression, leading many to commit suicide.
References
External links
The Aversion ProjectSAMJ Forum: The Aversion ProjectVictim interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aversion Project
Medical malpractice
Human rights abuses
Discrimination in South Africa
LGBT history in South Africa
Persecution of LGBT people
Military of South Africa
Abandoned military projects of South Africa