Dr Oz removes conversion therapy episodes from show website

Turkish-American television presenter and former surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz has removed episodes on conversion therapy from the website of his daytime television show, The Dr. Oz Show.

The website of The Dr. Oz’s Show appears to have scrubbed all its segments on gay conversion therapy that aired in 2012. The now-deleted segments included a three-part interview with anti-LGBTQ advocates, reparative therapy advocates, and a blog post from Oz about the debate around conversion therapy. Oz’s senate campaign has not yet commented on the matter.

Although Dr. Oz had expressed support for a Senate bill to protect same-sex marriage in the past few months, he had previously spoken out against trans athletes and backed bills mimicking Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ legislation.

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The US-based website Jezebel called the apparent deletions “the latest in the Republican Senate candidate’s long history of obscuring his own previous work and positions”.

“If the removal of the gay conversion therapy segments from his website was deliberate, it’s unclear to whom, exactly, Oz is pandering,” the website said, having noted that Dr. Oz eventually came down against the so-called conversion therapy.

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Oz is competing against the Democratic nominee Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman for Pennsylvania Senate. Oz’s campaign has faced continuous negativity from various scandals in the past months which this sudden deletion adds to.

In October this year, it was reported that between 1989 and 2010, Dr. Oz’s research resulted in the death of over 320 dogs, 660 rabbits and rodents, and a number of pigs and calves. He also attended a fundraiser at the Lyon Air Museum and was photographed standing in front of one of Hitler’s cars. A picture of a Senate candidate in front of a car marked with Hitler’s swastika created a lot of controversies. More recently, Oz reportedly launched vicious attacks at Fetterman for having a stroke.