FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL — YouTube has permanently deleted a deceased psychological therapist’s account for using “hate speech,” citing a 1994 debate in which he referred to a book with the word “sissy” in the title.

“By silencing scientific debate they don’t like, YouTube is effectively shaping the public conversation about trauma and sexuality,” Joseph Nicolosi Jr., founder of the Reintegrative Therapy Association and son of the late Joseph Nicolosi Sr., told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement Wednesday.

“They’re only letting the public (and people who are struggling with their sexuality) hear one side of the discussion, and in doing so, they’re misleading the very same people they claim they want to protect — individuals who struggle with trauma and their sexuality,” Nicolosi added.

Nicolosi, whose father was born in 1947 and died in 2017, now runs his father’s YouTube channel. He says the channel has been active for 15 years, with videos receiving more than a million total views.

Yet on Feb. 28, YouTube deleted one of the channel’s videos, a debate from 1994, for violating the platform’s “hate speech policy.” YouTube cited a time stamp in the video — which remains available on X — where Nicolosi’s father cites the 1987 book The Sissy Boy Syndrome: The Development of Homosexuality, written by psychologist Richard Green.

The next day, YouTube flagged another video, which the younger Nicolosi told The Daily Signal he thinks was a mistake.

The younger Nicolosi appealed the video’s deletion, and YouTube restored the account on March 10, only to delete it again on March 11 for “severe or repeated violations of our hate speech policy.”

“After taking another look, we can confirm that your channel does not violate our Community Guidelines,” YouTube initially wrote in an email.

On March 17, Nicolosi released a video urging YouTube to restore the account, and YouTube responded with a note saying it would review the matter.

On Sunday, YouTube told Nicolosi that “our policy team confirmed the termination was correct.” The company added that team members “appreciate your understanding of our need to make this tough call.”

our policy team confirmed the termination was correct. you can read through this article for more info on the Hate speech policy that led to this decision: https://t.co/m8cwQz0bpH appreciate your understanding of our need to make this tough call

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) March 25, 2024

“This latest censorship by Big Tech is just another step in silencing speech they don’t like,” Nicolosi said in a Wednesday press release. “My father was giving an academic presentation 30 years ago and mentioned a book title from almost 40 years ago. Young men who struggle with their sexual identity are being denied scientific information on how childhood trauma may have impacted their sexual development.”

Nicolosi’s father pioneered what he called “reparative therapy,” using mainstream talk therapy methods to address underlying psychological issues that lead to unwanted same-sex attraction. Critics brand his practices “conversion therapy,” claiming that it aims to “turn people straight.”

Nicolosi’s Reintegrative Therapy Association says it doesn’t promote or sanction conversion therapy, but encourages patient-driven therapy that may alter sexual attraction as a byproduct of addressing underlying trauma.

Nicolosi pointed to a Jan. 23, 2024, report from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism as a potential motivation for the YouTube ban.

The report, “Conversion Therapy Online: The Ecosystem in 2023,” mentions the father and son duo 30 times and condemns YouTube as “a disaster when it comes to conversion therapy content.” The report urges companies to clamp down on the “medical disinformation” of “conversion therapy,” warning that it is “dangerous, and sometimes deadly, to allow pro-conversion therapy material to surface.”

The project’s cofounder, Heidi Beirich, formerly led the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. As I wrote in Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the SPLC attacks mainstream conservative and Christian organizations, putting them on a “hate map” alongside the likes of chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. The Intelligence Project publishes that map, which inspired an act of terrorism in 2012.

In January 2022, YouTube deleted the Reintegrative Therapy Association’s account for what it called “repeated or severe violations of our Community Guidelines on Hate Speech,” Fox Business reported.

A previous version of the report from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and a Forbes article summarizing its claims launched just days before the 2022 ban, Nicolosi noted.

“The Forbes article repeatedly mentioned Reintegrative Therapy and came out less than three days before our channel was banned,” Nicolosi said at the time. The story “specifically ordered Big Tech to cancel our content,” he said.

“The Left’s only option is to crush dissent — even when it’s coming from a licensed clinical psychologist like me, who’s taking viewers through the vast array of published research findings on the possibility of shifting one way or another on the sexuality spectrum,” Nicolosi told Fox Business. “By silencing scientific evidence they don’t like, they effectively shape the public conversation about the science of sexuality and gender.”

YouTube did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

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