On Tuesday a New Jersey state judge ruled that gay conversion therapy groups whose marketing claims homosexuality is a disease that can be cured are violating the state’s consumer protection laws. The ruling was the first of its kind nationwide, according to a legal rights group.

The ruling was part of a consumer fraud lawsuit against the New Jersey-based conversion therapy provider known as JONAH, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing. The lawsuit was brought by Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of ex-JONAH clients and parents of former clients, who alleged that the group lured clients using deceptive practices to get them to pay for gay-to-straight therapy that can cost over $10,000 per year.

Superior Court Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. said that the claims are a misrepresentation that violates the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA) in the advertising or selling of conversion therapy services to describe homosexuality as a mental illness, disease or disorder, rather than a normal variation of human sexuality. Bariso also said that JONAH was in violation of the CFA by either selling or advertising conversion therapy services that included specific “success” statistics, when calculating those statistics has no factual basis.

David Dinielle, a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) deputy legal director, says it is the first time a court has ruled that having conversion therapists tell clients they have a mental disorder that can be cured is fraudulent as a matter of law. He says that “gay people don’t need to be cured, and we are thrilled that the court has recognized this.”

Dinielle said that the ruling is devastating to the conversion therapy industry. James L. Bromley, SPLC co-counsel, added that the “harmful myth that gay peoople are sick or damaged belongs in the dustbin of history.”

Mainstream medical and psychiatric groups say that gay conversion therapy is unfounded in science and can be harmful. The American Psychiatric Association said that is can cause anxiety and depression in patients.