As TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz continues his run for a Republican seat on the Pennsylvania Senate (even though he lives in New Jersey) he’s trying to do damage control — by removing an episode of his television show about LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy.” He has scrubbed the video of the 2012 episode from the Dr. Oz Show website.

The episode’s page is still up, however, and posts the description: “Dr. Oz hosts a discussion about reparative therapy. Find out what it is and what the experts have to say. Then, Dr. Oz investigates what happens during reparative therapy. Watch and see what goes in a reparative therapy retreat.” LGBTQNation reports that links to the program’s three segments are still up as well, but a message pops up saying that the videos are “currently unavoidable.”

Dr. Oz appears to have scrubbed his controversial gay conversation therapy episode from the internet.

Link: https://t.co/ZeILz8WpSu pic.twitter.com/kcIrlhJpiZ

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) October 24, 2022

But as Twitter account PatriotTakes (which monitors right-wing hate) will have you know, Oz has even gone so far as to remove responses from LGBTQ organizations GLAAD and GLSEN to the episode, accompanied by a 2012 blog post that Oz had written. In that post, he argued that “the debate continues” over a proposed gay conversion therapy ban in California.

Dr. Oz even scrubbed his response to his controversial gay conversation therapy episode.

Dr. Oz said “the debate continues” over a proposed gay conversion therapy law in California.

Archived: https://t.co/3h5ycPjqDp pic.twitter.com/d4cH1yw0qo

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) October 24, 2022

GLAAD, GLSEN, and PFLAG all denounced this odious episode when it was broadcast and called on Oz to stand with the medical community against conversion therapy and to reassure his LGBTQ+ viewers that he doesn’t support the view that their sexual orientation needs to be “repaired.” The groups contend that the producers of the Dr. Oz Show arranged their program on reparative therapy in a way that “provided a lengthy platform for junk science.”

The episode featured two “ex-gay” activists in two segments who were used to rebut statements made by opponents of the controversial “therapy.”

But that’s not even the half of it. Oz also showcased the now-discredited anti-LGBTQ organization National Association for Research and Therapy (NARTH) by featuring representative Julie Hamilton as a so-called “expert.” Now defunct, NARTH promoted conversion therapy, which is now fortunately illegal in a number of states.

GLAAD, GLSEN, and PFLAG released a joint statement denouncing NARTH and noting that the episode misrepresented “NARTH’s work and practices [as] legitimate and acceptable medical practices.” The groups also took Oz to task. While the episode did feature guests who were against this demonstrably harmful therapy, Oz himself never weighed in, and the groups say “the audience was misled to believe that there are actual experts on both sides of this issue.”

The original blog post has been removed from Oz’s website, but thanks to the miracle of the internet archive the WayBackMachine, it has been preserved for posterity. Oz followed up with a subsequent post where he indicated he supports “the established medical consensus” which has rejected conversion therapy.

The Human Rights Campaign notes:

“Beyond studies focused solely on reparative therapy, broader research clearly demonstrates the significant harm that societal prejudice and family rejection has on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, particularly youth. Furthermore, there is significant anecdotal evidence of harm to LGBTQ people resulting from attempts to change their sexual orientation and gender identity. Based on this body of evidence, every major medical and mental health organization in the United States has issued a statement condemning the use of conversion therapy.”

The campaign reports it has found clear evidence that conversion therapy doesn’t work and is, in fact quite harmful to LGBTQ individuals.

“In contrast, there is ample evidence that societal prejudice causes significant medical, psychological and other harms to LGBTQ people. For example, research on the issue of family acceptance of LGBTQ youth conducted at San Francisco State University found that ‘compared with LGBTQ young people who were not rejected or were only a little rejected by their parents and caregivers because of their gay or transgender identity, highly rejected LGBTQ young people were:

Oz is facing off against Democrat John Fetterman, who leads him by 1.3 percent, Real Clear Politics reports. I’m going to point out that Fetterman has been endorsed by the HRC, which notes he has been a champion for the rights of LGBTQ people. If you’re not cruel and don’t believe in oppressing the rights of people who aren’t harming anyone and you live in Pennsylvania, you know what to do.