National organizations are joining Senator Patty Murrays call to treat conversion therapy groups like fraudulent businesses.
National organizations are joining Senator Patty Murray's call to treat conversion therapy groups like fraudulent businesses. Kelly O

Two weeks after Washington senator Patty Murray joined a letter asking the Federal Trade Commission to ban "conversion" therapy—a debunked and dangerous practice that aims to turn gay people straight—a coalition of national groups have filed a federal consumer fraud complaint against conversion therapy with the same agency.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the Human Rights Campaign filed a complaint against People Can Change (PCC) , a Virginia-based group that provides resources for people who seek to change "unwanted homosexual feelings."

The complaint, which cites Murray's letter to the FTC, alleges that PCC "continues to mislead consumers into believing that being LGBT is a disorder, developmental deficiency, or the result of emotional trauma that can be cured or healed." The groups ask that the FTC take action against PCC's advertising, marketing, and business practices—and investigate similar organizations.

Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center won a New Jersey consumer fraud case against JONAH, a Jewish conversion therapy group. In 2013, New Jersey governor Chris Christie banned New Jersey therapists from performing "conversion therapy" on their patients.

Read the full complaint here.