Will this be the year that ex-gay therapy on minors gets banned in Virginia? – LGBTQ Nation

With bills in the House and Senate, advocates, legislators and survivors gathered at the General Assembly building in Richmond Sunday to decry the practice of ex-gay therapy and approach a long passed-over topic with new hope.

The practice, which aims to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity through controversial psychological means, was called “dangerous” by Delegate Patrick Hope (D-43), the sponsor of HB 427. The senate versions of the bill are  SB 262 and SB 267.

Hope, who has supported similar legislation for three years in a row, said conversion therapy stems from the false idea that “LGTBQ people, particularly children, are broken and some how need to be fixed.”

“There’s not an on/off switch [for sexuality],” he said.

Senator Scott Surovell (D-44), who has championed pro-LGBTQ bills in the past, joined Hope in submitting a Senate version of a bill which also aims to ban the practice on youth.
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The argument that ex-gay therapy is a kind of consumer fraud is something other sates, like New Jersey, have used to pass legislation banning the practice, but the bills discussed today didn’t include those concerns. This fraud angle is something Hope suggested the Attorney General’s office could look into and get behind, and AVP President Scott Price said fraud language might be included in future versions depending on the AG’s interest.

Other senator’s who have co-signed onto this legislation include Favola (who was in attendance for today’s event), McEachin, Dance, Lucas, and Ebbin.

Will this be the year that ex-gay therapy on minors gets banned in Virginia? – LGBTQ Nation

Pray the Gay Away | National | News | SFGN Articles

The next thing Brinton remembers, he woke up in the commune’s emergency room – his father had knocked him out cold. The beatings continued for the next two months whenever he talked about his feelings towards boys, but he never understood why. Finally, seeing that the beatings weren't working, his parents took him to see a therapist who promised he could cure him of his homosexual thoughts.

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“I can walk away from the exorcism and say, ‘That was so weird and the most ridiculous thing ever,’” Prentiss said. “But when I think back it’s mostly the talk therapy stuff that’s really the most damaging…it gets in your head and it cultivates that self hatred.”

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As Besen so eloquently notes, you can not change the core of one's being; the essence of who one is as a person.  Anyone one who tells you they can "fix" you is a fool, a lair, or both. They ignore one of the simplest, and oldest  principles in life, in order to love and accept others, one most love and accept self.  But you see within the Reich, that will never happen.  It can't happen:

https://www.facebook.com/WEAREUAA/photos/a.200085766695305.42584.200082823362266/905695336134341/?type=3

The whole charade is predicated on demonizing an "other" to gain power and fuck all who get in their way.

“Being gay is not a disorder. Being transgender is not a malady that requires a cure. Had I been Leelah Alcorn’s physician, I would have told her exactly that,” Dr. Murthy said.

Conversion therapy is nothing new – when simply threatening the wrath of God on people was no longer working, churches took a new approach, said Wayne Besen, the founder of Truth Wins Out (TWO), an LGBT advocacy group working to eliminate anti-gay bias.

“Conversion therapy is the hijacking of medical language to justify religious persecution and beliefs,” said Wayne Besen, the founder and executive director TWO. “The ministries use the medical language and the therapists use the religious language. It’s the same damn thing.”

TWO made waves in 2011 when it took down Bachmann and Associates for practicing reparative therapy even though its founder, Marcus Bachmann, the husband of former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, claimed they did no such thing. TWO conducted an undercover investigation into the practice for a week with cameras. During the investigation, a TWO staffer went through reparative therapy and was promised that he could be turned straight and that they had done it before.

The report came out in the midst of Michele’s run for president.

“It takes the most beautiful part of one’s life and turns it into something ugly, and when you do that, you’re destroying the person spiritually and emotionally and physically,” Besen said. “When you turn it into something painful, you destroy the very essence of the person.”

Pray the Gay Away | National | News | SFGN Articles