Amy Sussman / AP Images for Southern Poverty Law Center

From left, Michael Ferguson, Chaim Lavin, Ben Unger and Sheldon Bruck are suing a New Jersey organization for consumer fraud for offering "gay conversion" therapy services.

Four young men who say they underwent therapy that sought to “convert” them from gay to straight are suing a New Jersey provider known as JONAH, alleging fraud and accusing it of using dangerous sham tactics to try to “fix something that isn’t broken.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday filed the lawsuit in Superior Court of New Jersey on behalf of the men and two of their parents against Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), its founder, Arthur Goldberg, and counselor Alan Downing.

The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act by providing “conversion therapy” that falsely claims to “cure” gay clients.

It is the first time a “conversion therapy” provider has been sued for fraudulent business practices, according to the SPLC, a Montgomery, Ala.-based civil rights organization that fights hate and bigotry.

Suing are Michael Ferguson, 30, of Salt Lake City; Benjamin Unger, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Chaim Levin, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Sheldon Bruck, 20, of New York City, along with Levin’s mother, Bella Levin, and Bruck’s mother, Jo Bruck.

The lawsuit says clients of JONAH’s services typically paid a minimum of $100 for weekly individual counseling sessions and another $60 for group therapy sessions.

Ferguson was in his 20s and Unger, Levin and Bruck were in their late teens when they underwent the therapy, according to the lawsuit.

The four men say they were lured into JONAH’s services through deceptive practices and then subjected to humiliating and emotionally damaging therapy techniques, including group sessions in which they were instructed to stand naked in a circle with their counselor, who was also undressed.

“JONAH profits off of shameful and dangerous attempts to fix something that isn’t broken,” Christine P. Sun, deputy legal director for the SPLC, said in a statement. “Despite the consensus of mainstream professional organizations that conversion therapy doesn’t work, this racket continues to scam vulnerable gay men and lesbians out of thousands of dollars and inflicts significant harm on them.”

JONAH, based in Jersey City, did not respond to telephone messages and emails from NBC News for comment.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages as well as revocation of JONAH’s business license and an order to stop its employees and associates from continuing reparative therapy practices.

In the lawsuit, Ferguson said he participated in one session in which clients took turns trying break past a human chain to wrest away two oranges, which were used to represent testicles, from another individual – all the while being taunted with statements such as “you’re such a fag, homo, queer boy.”

“They play blindly with deep emotions and create an immense amount of self-doubt for the client,” Ferguson was quoted as saying in a press release from the SPLC. “They seize on your personal vulnerability, and tell you that being gay is synonymous with being less of a man. They further misrepresent themselves as having the key to your new orientation.”

Unger said his counselor advised him to spend more time at the gym as well as to get naked with his father at bathhouses to “get in touch with his masculinity.”

“These counselors are skilled at manipulating you into believing just about anything,” said Unger. “During my time with JONAH, they told me constantly that my mom had made me gay. I was so convinced that I refused to have any contact with her for several months, which caused a great deal of damage to our relationship.”

In another exercise, according to the lawsuit, clients were blindfolded in sporting scenes as counselors and others dribbled basketballs and hurled anti-gay slurs at them.

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JONAH, formerly known as Jews Offering New Alternatives for Homosexuality, was founded by Goldberg, a former Wall Street executive and attorney.

The organization describes itself as “a non-profit international organization dedicated to educating the worldwide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors which lead to same-sex attractions.”

JONAH’s mission statement adds:

"Our Rabbinical sages explain that because mankind has been endowed by our Creator with a free will, everyone has the capacity to change. Furthermore, the Rabbis emphasize that parents, teachers and counselors have a special responsibility to educate, nurture, and provide an opportunity for those struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions to journey out of homosexuality.

Through psychological and spiritual counseling, peer support, and self-empowerment, JONAH seeks to reunify families, to heal the wounds surrounding homosexuality, and to provide hope."

The SPLC says the essential premise of conversion therapy, sometimes also called “reparative” or “ex-gay” therapy – that it will “convert” a gay person into a straight person – has no basis in scientific fact. Such therapy has long been discredited by mainstream mental health and medical professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, according to the law center.

Two months ago, California became the first state in the nation to ban gay conversion therapy for minors when Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1172. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, called gay cure therapy "quackery" and said parents were never informed of its potentially dangerous aftereffects.

At least two groups, the Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel and the California-based Pacific Justice Institute, have filed lawsuits challenging the California ban.

Also, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier , D-Calif., said that on Wednesday in the U.S. House, she plans to introduce a resolution, called Stop Harming Our Kids, aimed at stopping reparative therapy practices on minors.

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A California lawmaker says he’s optimistic about the prospects of a bill that would make it illegal for therapists in the state to try to “convert” gay youths.

Sen. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, says so-called “reparative” or “ex-gay” therapy wrongfully treats homosexuality as a disease and can be dangerous to minors. If his bill becomes law, California would become the first state to ban therapy aimed at turning gay and lesbian teens straight.

“Some therapists are taking advantage of vulnerable people by pushing dangerous sexual orientation-change efforts,” Lieu said before the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve the bill on Tuesday. “These non-scientific efforts have led in some cases to patients later committing suicide, as well as severe mental and physical anguish.”

SB 1172 now goes to the full Senate. No date for a vote has been set, but it will likely be in the next month, according to Lieu. If it passes there, it would face action in the Assembly.

“For decades, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people — particularly youth — have suffered psychological abuse by those who are entrusted to care for their emotional and psychological well-being,” Clarissa Filgioun, board president of Equality California, an advocacy organization that sponsored the bill, said in a statement. “It's long past time to do everything in our power to put an end to the use of therapy tactics that have no sound scientific basis and that cause lifelong damage.”

The bill would ban children under 18 from undergoing so-called “sexual orientation change efforts,” often referred to by the acronym SOCE. It would also require adults seeking such treatment to sign informed-consent forms indicating that they understand potential dangers of reparative therapy that the bill lays out, including depression and suicide, and that it has no medical basis.

“I feel confident that the bill will pass,” Lieu told msnbc.com on Wednesday. “The facts are on our side.”

His comments came on the same day that Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to publicly back same-sex marriage. Obama said that, after reflection, he had concluded “it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."

Obama: 'I think same-sex couples should be able to get married'

SOCE techniques vary and may include visualization, behavioral and social skills training components. In some extreme cases, therapists have used electric shock or nausea-inducing drugs to try to modify the behavior of gay people, according to media reports.

Lieu says decades of research by mental health experts have shown that efforts to “repair” a person’s sexual orientation can be harmful.

Several professional groups, including the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, have taken the position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, and therefore there is no need for a “cure.”

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

State Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to approve his bill to ban a form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay people straight.

Opponents of Lieu’s bill say it’s wrong to single out one form of therapy.

David Pickup, a licensed marriage and family therapist in California who says he was once gay and became heterosexual after undergoing reparative therapy starting in his 30s, says a ban would prevent some people from recovering from trauma of sexual abuse.

Pickup, who trained under the supervision of psychologist Joseph Nicolosi -- considered by many to be the father of modern reparative therapy -- traveled to Sacramento on Tuesday to testify against the bill.

He said its backers are "egregiously misquoting the science” by contending that all SOCE is harmful. He also said the bill “takes away parents’ rights to have any input on their sons’ and daughters’ ambiguousness about sexuality.”

“I was one of those abused boys, so people like me can’t receive this kind of help, which in my opinion is just horrific,” Pickup told msnbc.com. “I’ve dealt with these issues and come out extremely happy. Reparative therapy saved my life.”

Pickup is a member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, or NARTH, which describes itself as an organization that “offers hope to those who struggle with unwanted homosexuality.” NARTH calls the bill “a scientific and legislative travesty.”

“The fact that this legislation is solely directed at SOCE should be a red flag suggesting that ideological and political motivations may motivate backers of this legislation as much as any concern for consumers derived from the relevant science,” the group says.  “NARTH believes this effort, if successful, would set a dangerous precedence for the mental health professions, unjustly restrict client rights, and almost certainly invite legal action.”

Exodus International, a Florida-based Christian group that has “ex-gay” ministries and churches across the country, including about three dozen in California, declined to comment on the bill on Wednesday, saying the matter was "outside the scope of our ministry."

Other professional groups say they think the bill is well-intended but needs to be tweaked.

A coalition including the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, California Psychiatric Association, California Psychological Association, and the Association for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors is seeking amendments to the bill.

“Our big concern is that the definition of sexual orientation change efforts is overbroad and too much is open to interpretation,” said Jill Epstein, executive director of the state marriage and family therapists association. “It could have a chilling effect on legitimate explorations of gender identity issues.”

Lieu says his office is working with the coalition to address the concerns.

He says public response to the bill has been overall very positive. But he’s also been the recipient of a steady stream of hate emails, phone calls and tweets, including one person who recently tweeted him: “I know that you are not a Christian, but God exists and you will not enter the kingdom of heaven for this.”

Lieu tweeted in response: “You do not decide, God does.”

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