California's gay "reparative therapy" ban faces legal test
California was the first state to ban a controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. A California law prohibiting mental health providers from counseling gay minors on how to become straight faces its first legal test Friday, when lawyers for counselors endorsing "reparative therapy" and parents who claim their sons have benefited from it, plan to ask a judge to block the first-of-its-kind measure.
U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller will hear arguments on whether she should grant an injunction that would prevent the law, which was passed by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown as SB1172 in October, from taking effect on Jan. 1.
The temporary delay would allow underage clients to continue receiving the therapy while its supporters seek to overturn the law on grounds that it violates their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion.
If it's not blocked, the therapists and families "will be immediately and irreparably harmed by being forced to discontinue ongoing therapy in violation of their constitutional rights, by being denied the ability to direct the upbringing of their children, and by being compelled to violate their ethical obligations in order to obey the law," lawyers from Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group, wrote in their petition.
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The law Brown signed states that psychologists, social workers, family counselors and psychiatrists who use "sexual orientation change efforts" on clients under 18 would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by their respective state licensing boards.
Lawyers for the state argue the ban is appropriate because it seeks to protect young people from a practice that has been rejected by mainstream mental health associations that regard homosexuality as a healthy part of the human experience and say that efforts to change an individual's sexual orientation can be harmful, particularly to children.
The outlawed therapy "can and has caused great psychological pain in young people who are already struggling with their sexuality and the stigma of being gay," Attorney General Kamala Harris wrote in asking the judge to deny the requested delay. "An injunction would expose some of society's most vulnerable members to treatment that the state and every major mental health organization in the country have condemned as an outmoded, ineffective, and potentially dangerous relic from an era when homosexuality was pathologized and criminalized."
Mueller is not expected to make a ruling at the hearing, but to issue a written decision at a later date.
The proceedings will be unusual, in part, because the judge granted Liberty Counsel's request to refer to the four parents and two teenage boys participating in the case by pseudonyms in both open court and legal documents.
Along with the petition to keep the law from taking effect, Mueller is scheduled to hear arguments on whether lawyers from the gay rights group Equality California should be allowed to join the attorney general in defending the law.
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We produced a video that shares the story of a man who deals with SSA, and has found success in therapy. He talks not just about change, but about choice—an essential part of human life.
The link to the video is here: http://youtu.be/IB5Km5dCtZk?hd=1
TRUTH WINS OUT (www.truthwinsout.org) has repeatedly shown the sham and disgrace this nazi-based, psycho-babble therapy is. They always get caught in gay bars, in bathrooms and rest areas having gay sex in secret. ALWAYS. Photos help prove the point.
They benefited greatly from his advice. The doctor was wise enough to know that no one in our family needed "therapy," just some advice and reassurance. He gave me some practical advice about getting through all the barriers I faced as a homosexual man in America.
Happily married now, for 40 years, to another man, and both of us retired. Just like my parents and my husband's parents.
For any young person out there today: No one has a right to tell us who you are, who you can marry, that you can love and be loved like any other human being.
If I did not want to see a psychiatrist, yes, my father could not "bring a psychiatrist into the 'process'." But, if I want to see one, or I think my parents should see one, nothing in the law prevents that from continuing to occur.
Nothing prevents parents from taking their child to a church for an exorcism either.
Nearly everyone has an opinion and in the case of any hot-button issue like Gay marriage or Gay therapy, however strong they are, they are just that. Here's mine:
Sexuality of any sort is hardwired into the embryo looooonnnng before birth; socialization has nothing to do with it. Nor is there any evidence yet that there are any environmental triggers that predispose anyone to one gender preference or another. It's ALL inborn. You come out of the chute with your future sexuality firmly imprinted and there is nothing man or God can do to change it.
Mind, there are some lesbians and some gay men who can force themmselves to have s*x with the other side but, for them it's never natural and it is never as enjoyable as with their own gender. Regardless, these people are still gay.
So the idea that a little talk therapy, tough love or even fancy drugs can change one's sexual orientation is laughable. It ain't gonna happen. Period. If you are Gay and do not want to be the news isn't very good. All therapy can (or should) do is help you come to grips with your gender preferences. If you are straight and think that homosexuality is a sin and this can help the "sinner", the news is similarly rotten. You will need to examine the idea that homosexuality is morally neutral and the Gay man or woman is no more morally reprehensible than is the sufferer of hemophilia or Multiple Sclerosis.
The state of California is doing no more than the minimum necessary to keep the quackery down to manageable levels. Outlawing something like Gay "therapy" is just common sense and has nothing to do with any political agenda.
I don't know that they are. This instance, it COULD be cultural and in any case society does not treat the "multi-fidelous" men with anywhere nearly the disdain that it treats the homosexual - the publicity surrounding Gay rights notwithstanding.
I guess I wll have to answer you question with one of my own:
do you believe that multi-fidelitous women should be accepted to the same degree that men who enjoy sex with multiple partners are?
It's happening and it's real so cope already. You're being sued all over the country now and I'm giddy over it. Watch and see how FAST your pastors and peachers pull back when MONEY comes into the mix. They'll lead you straight up to the front line and leave you hanging there. With the American fundamentalist church, it's ALL about the money!
I'm not anti-christian because many, many christians are not anti-gay. That's right. You don't own it anymore. You just look strange trying to act like you do.
When a child's well being is at stake, the state enforces all sorts of laws to protect the child over the objections of parents - whatever their motivations or "beliefs."
Absolute "parental control" in most civilized nations seldom happens anymore.
Our Constitution is a living document of fairness and equality. It's the Bill of RIGHTS, not the Bill of restrictions to Freedom. Our society already prevents parents from physically restraining children and torturing them. That's all this brand of reparative therapy is. They'd be more effective it praying their children's hair color to change than their sexuality. Gay Marriage WILL BE NATIONAL in 2013. The Conservatives have already lost. Prop 8 and the four DOMA cases...TODAY!!
Besides, I'm not asking you to embrace my husband. I'm asking that I be allowed to embrace him, as my husband. None of your damn business anyway! Why don't YOU stay the hell out of my bedroom?