Calif. could ban gay-to-straight therapy for teens

Started by garbon, May 08, 2012, 03:39:33 PM

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garbon

May 08, 2012, 03:39:33 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/calif-could-ban-gay-straight-therapy-teens-195822806.html

QuoteCalifornia lawmakers are poised to vote Tuesday on a first-of-its-kind ban on a controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay people straight.

Supporters say the legislation is necessary because such treatments are ineffective and harmful.

"This therapy can be dangerous," said the bill's author Sen. Ted Lieu.

He added the treatments can "cause extreme depression and guilt" that sometimes leads to suicide.

Conservative religious groups emphatically reject that view of sexual orientation therapy and say the California bill would interfere with parents' rights to seek appropriate psychological care for their children.

"While this is a direct assault on everyone's freedom it is also a not so subtle attack on religious liberty," the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality said in a statement.

The debate comes as gay rights issues take the spotlight around the nation.

Over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden said he is "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex couples getting the same rights as heterosexual couples.

In North Carolina on Tuesday, voters are expected to decide whether to make it the 29th state to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

And in Colorado, a measure to extend civil union protections to gay couples faces a looming deadline in the state Legislature.

The California bill would prohibit so-called reparative therapy for minors and force adults who chose to undergo the treatment to sign a release form that states that the counseling is ineffective and possibly dangerous.

AB1172, sponsored by Equality California, was expected to go to its final committee hearing Tuesday afternoon and will go to the full Senate if approved.

Lieu says attempts to pathologize and change people's sexual orientation should be treated akin to smoking and drinking: harmful activities that adults can choose to participate in, but children cannot.

"We let adults do all sorts of stupid and risky things, but we ban dangerous things for young people," Lieu, D-Torrance, said in a telephone interview.

He was inspired to take up the issue by a cable news documentary featuring people whose parents had attempted to change their sexual orientation. The doctor featured in the show "was evil," he said.

Interest in the religion-based therapy appears to have surged in recent years.

Exodus International, the world's largest Christian referral network dealing with homosexuality, now refers people to 260 groups across the country, up from about 100 a decade ago. The organization has 35 ministries and churches scattered around California, from the Central Valley to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mainstream mental health organizations say people shouldn't be seeking out groups like Exodus at all.

The American Psychological Association said in 2009 that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy.

The association cited research suggesting that efforts to produce the change could lead to depression and suicidal tendencies, and stated that no solid evidence exists that such change is possible.

The American Counseling Association and American Psychiatric Association have also disavowed the therapy. And the psychiatric association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders nearly 30 years ago.

Conversion therapy penetrated the national consciousness last year when former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was questioned over whether the Christian counseling business of her husband provided therapies that attempted to change gays and lesbians.

Last month, psychiatrist Bob Spitzer retracted his widely-cited 2001 study that found that "highly motivated" people could change their sexual orientation, and apologized to the gay community.

The measure would likely face legal challenges from opponents who say it is unconstitutional.

Lieu says he addressed free speech issues by excluding clergy from the legislation.

Gay rights advocates say such a ban would constitute a major milestone, and could lead to similar legislation across the country.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Viking

#1
May 08, 2012, 03:50:29 PM
I don't think the government should be banning the activities of well informed consenting adults.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

viper37

#2
May 08, 2012, 04:45:04 PM
Quote from: Viking on May 08, 2012, 03:50:29 PM
I don't think the government should be banning the activities of well informed consenting adults.

The California bill would prohibit so-called reparative therapy for minors and force adults who chose to undergo the treatment to sign a release form that states that the counseling is ineffective and possibly dangerous.

I don't see the problem, provided it's proven by mainstream science that it's harmful.  We prevent teens from buying cigarettes because they're dangerous for them, it's really no different.
I don't do meditation.  I drink alcohol to relax, like normal people.

If Microsoft Excel decided to stop working overnight, the world would practically end.

Malthus

#3
May 08, 2012, 04:55:08 PM
Who gets to do the "turning lesbians straight" therapy?  :perv:

[Note: not with real-life lesbians, only with porn lesbians  :P]
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Barrister

#4
May 08, 2012, 04:57:29 PM
They need to ban chiropracty long before they ban this, if they want to go after "ineffective and possibly dangerous therapy".

Since they aren't, I'll put this down to political grandstanding.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Iormlund

#5
May 08, 2012, 05:10:45 PM
Quote from: Malthus on May 08, 2012, 04:55:08 PM
Who gets to do the "turning lesbians straight" therapy?  :perv:

[Note: not with real-life lesbians, only with porn lesbians  :P]

I once met a couple of spectacular lesbians. Even the sort of butch one was somehow ridiculously HOTT.

Martinus

#6
May 08, 2012, 05:13:25 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2012, 04:57:29 PM
They need to ban chiropracty long before they ban this, if they want to go after "ineffective and possibly dangerous therapy".

Since they aren't, I'll put this down to political grandstanding.

Havent heard of many kids committing suicide as a result of chiropracty.

garbon

#7
May 08, 2012, 05:14:20 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2012, 04:57:29 PM
They need to ban chiropracty long before they ban this, if they want to go after "ineffective and possibly dangerous therapy".

Since they aren't, I'll put this down to political grandstanding.

Given the political setup for gays in California, I'd call it tit for tat.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Razgovory

#8
May 08, 2012, 06:06:56 PM
Quote from: Martinus on May 08, 2012, 05:13:25 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 08, 2012, 04:57:29 PM
They need to ban chiropracty long before they ban this, if they want to go after "ineffective and possibly dangerous therapy".

Since they aren't, I'll put this down to political grandstanding.

Havent heard of many kids committing suicide as a result of chiropracty.

I still wonder why it's socially acceptable to talk about curing a pedophile and not acceptable to try to cure someone who is gay.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Valmy

#9
May 08, 2012, 08:28:16 PM
What about straight-to-gay therapy?
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Jaron

#10
May 08, 2012, 08:28:58 PM
 :homestar:
Winner of THE grumbler point.

garbon

#11
May 08, 2012, 08:30:16 PM
Raz, when people have you on ignore, they can't see your feeble attempts unless they choose to.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Valmy

#12
May 08, 2012, 08:31:12 PM
Ah yeah.  Martybait fail.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Jaron

#13
May 08, 2012, 08:32:50 PM
Valmy needs Caps-to-Rangers therapy! :w00t:
Winner of THE grumbler point.

Valmy

#14
May 08, 2012, 08:34:09 PM
Quote from: Jaron on May 08, 2012, 08:32:50 PM
Valmy needs Caps-to-Rangers therapy! :w00t:

It ain't over yet :angry:
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."
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