Here are some highlights from Lara Embry's opinion piece:
California is poised to play an important role in banning the dangerous practice of anti-gay "conversion therapy" for minors. The state Senate has already passed a ban, and as early as this week, the state Assembly will consider a bill that would prohibit mental health practitioners from trying to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender expression.
It is not as though the jury is still out on this kind of "therapy." The consensus of leading professional associations is not only that conversion therapy doesn't work; it is also potentially harmful. The American Psychological Assn., the American Counseling Assn. and the American Psychiatric Assn. all declared long ago that being gay, lesbian or bisexual is not a form of mental illness or defect, and they have issued statements criticizing the practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation.
Recently, even the president of Exodus, one of the most prominent national groups advocating conversion therapy, announced that he no longer believes a person's sexual orientation can simply be changed. He also said he no longer supports so-called "reparative" therapy, which is based on a belief that same-sex attraction results from emotional traumas in childhood...
...It is easy to enjoy a chuckle when "formerly gay" therapists or advocates of conversion therapy are caught in gay bars or hire "rent boys" to carry their bags on holiday. We need to stop chuckling at these scandals and do something to stop the real and serious harm the proponents of these practices are doing. These "experts" will not stop selling this useless and harmful product until we ban it.
As evidenced by clinical accounts, as well as reported suicides, conversion therapy can be extremely harmful, especially to children. Having a mental health professional label a child's sexual attractions as wrong and abnormal contributes to problems rather than alleviating them...
...As a society, we need to step up and help protect these families from being harmed by therapists who claim to be experts, but are really just peddling hate.Lara Embry is a clinical psychologist and a member of the board of Equality California. She is married to actress Jane Lynch.
Support SB 1171, the first law in the nation to outlaw ex-gay "therapy", by signing this petition:
No comments:
Post a Comment