CA Legislation

[Cole Parker]

From today's LA Times:

edited to show only the parts of the story referenced by the headline

California lawmakers advance ban on gay 'conversion' therapy

By Michael J. Mishak and Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

June 1, 2012

SACRAMENTO — State lawmakers have advanced measures that would institute the country's first ban on gay "conversion" therapy for minors....

The first-of-its-kind proposal to ban "conversion" treatment targets psychotherapy aimed at making gay people straight. State Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said the therapy is based on "junk science" that has been discredited by many in the medical community.

"It's not just that people are wasting their time and money on these therapies that don't work," Lieu said. "These therapies are dangerous."

Psychiatric, family therapy and mental health advocates split on the bill, SB 1172. State Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) said some medical professionals were concerned that it is "overly broad and might prohibit their ability to engage in discussions about sexuality."

[Gee Whillickers]

If this passes it will be great news for many poor teens who are being forced against their will into these programs.

[blue]

It is tough enough growing up and figuring out your feelings, without having someone telling you you're wrong and trying to change you to make you the way they want, into someone straight. If your feelings are for the same sex, that's who those feelings are always going to be for. If you also have some amount of opposite-sex feelings, that's fine, there's probably a degree of both in most people. But trying to forcibly eliminate a teen's natural feelings of love and friendship (and attraction and sex too) is harmful, damaging, wrong, and even goes against that teen's nature, all because someone else thinks that teen's feelings are bad.

I would love to see ex-gay and "conversion" "therapy" banned. They won't work, they'll just damage the poor guys and girls forced through them, and somewhere inside, those teens or young adults will still have those feelings and have to overcome the damage done to their psyches.

Good for California. I'd like to see it here in Texas.

[DesDownunder]

On the other hand, we might want to have access to some form of therapy to assist all those heterosexual adults who think they aren't capable of enjoying a wider variety of human experiences.

[colinian]

The problem with this legislation is that it exempts religious organizations. Churches and church-controlled "facilities" can continue to do gay conversion therapy unabated.

Colin