A group of gay men are suing a New Jersey “conversion therapy” group, according to The Associated Press. The gay men are suing the New Jersey nonprofit because they believe that Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (JONAH) cheated them into believing that conversion therapy could make them straight.

The gay men said at a news conference Tuesday that they had to strip naked and swing a baseball bat at likenesses of their mothers as part of the conversion process. The lawsuit also said that the conversion therapy techniques included cuddling individuals of the same-sex, taking trips to bath houses and being called “faggots” and “homos” in locker room scenarios.

CNN reports that the treatment can cost patients up to $10,000 a year.

JONAH co-director Arthur Goldberg, one of the target’s of the lawsuit, reportedly told Sheldon Bruck (one of the gay men suing the conversion therapy group) that “JONAH could help him change his orientation from gay to straight.”

According to the organization’s website, the conversion therapy group is dedicated to educating the Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors which contribute to same-sex attractions.

“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 JONAH’s mission statement reads.

The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey against JONAH, Mr. Goldberg and counselor Alan Downing. The lawsuit charges that the organization and the aforementioned individuals violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act by suggesting that conversion therapy could make gay men straight.

“JONAH profits off of shameful and dangerous attempts to fix something that isn’t broken,” said Christine P. Sun, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, 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.”

The SPLC said that clients typically pay no less than $100 for weekly individual counseling session and another $60 for group therapy sessions.

“Sadly, there is no accountability for those who practice conversion therapy,” said Michael Ferguson, a conversion therapy survivor and plaintiff in the lawsuit, in a statement. “They play blindly with deep emotions and create an immense amount of self-doubt for the client. 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.”

The SPLC noted that JONAH encouraged its patients to blame their parents for being gay.

“These counselors are skilled at manipulating you into believing just about anything,” said Benjamin Unger, another plaintiff in the case, in a statement. “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.”

“People who are told repeatedly that they are innately defective are being abused and traumatized,” said Laura Booker, a licensed clinical social worker who works with people who have gone through conversion therapy, in a statement. “The cost of conversion therapy to gay men and lesbians may be nothing less than emotional devastation. They may spend years recovering from the trauma inflicted upon them.”

The organization’s founder is a disbarred attorney, having been convicted of three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government.

The American Psychological Association has said that conversion therapy will not a gay person straight. On August 4, 2009, the APA adopted a resolution that said there is no scientific evidence that conversion therapy can make gay people straight. The APA has been gradually addressing the issue of homosexuality. In the 1970s, the APA said that homosexuality should not be considered a pathology in need of treatment.