Americans United Says ‘Religious Liberty’ Does Not Justify Performing Harmful ‘Reparative’ Therapy On Minors
New Jersey Law Rightly Protects Children From Anti-Gay Counseling, Church-State Watchdog Tells Federal Court
Mar 6, 2014
The doctrine of religious freedom does not give licensed therapists the right to perform damaging “reparative” therapy on minors, Americans United for Separation of Church and State says.
In a friend-of-the-court brief submitted today in King v. Christie, Americans United told the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the state of New Jersey has a duty to protect children from harmful health care, even if that care is given in the name of religion.
“There is clear evidence that so-called ‘reparative’ therapy has no scientific basis,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Religion should never be an excuse to force something damaging on anyone, especially children.”
“The doctrine of religious freedom does not give licensed therapists the right to perform damaging “reparative” therapy on minors, Americans United for Separation of Church and State says.”
EXACTLY…But the truth is authentic Reparative Therapy doesn’t damage anyone. It helps them tremendously.
That’s completely false. There is no such thing as “reparative therapy” to turn a child un-gay. It’s impossible to pray the gay away.
From: http://www.faithinamerica.org/reparative-therapy/
“The Damaging Practice of Conversion or Reparative Therapy
Rather than resolving conflicts, reparative therapy programs create new ones by falsely promising gay people who are unhappy with their sexual orientation that they can become heterosexual. When gay men and women find that they can’t change, they end up with feelings of guilt and failure that lead to depression, loss of friends and social support, addictive behaviors, and substance abuse. – CRISIS – 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay in America
Reparative Therapy is a serious matter.
The practice has caused much physical and emotional damage to LGBT people by organizations who wrongfully say they can cure homosexuality.
Too often, young people are forced to undergo Conversion Therapy by parents and ministers who refuse to accept that they are gay. Parents need to understand that being gay is ok and that their child was created this way in God’s eyes. While some religions wrongfully condemn homosexuality, many embrace it and believe it is part of God’s natural order.
Parents also need to understand that you can’t change a person’s sexuality by forcing them to go through the damaging practice of conversion or reparative therapy. And understand the serious emotional and psychological damage they will cause their son or daughter if they put them through this process.”
From: http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/the-lies-and-dangers-of-reparative-therapy
“The Lies and Dangers of Efforts to Change Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity
Many right-wing religious groups promote the concept that an individual can change his or her sexual orientation, either through prayer or other religious efforts, or through so-called “reparative” or “conversion” therapy. The limited research on such efforts has disproven their efficacy, and also has indicated that they can be affirmatively harmful. Beyond studies focused solely on reparative therapy, broader research clearly demonstrates the significant harm that societal prejudice and family rejection has on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, particularly youth. Furthermore, there is significant anecdotal evidence of harm to LGBT people resulting from attempts to change their sexual orientation. Based on this body of evidence, every major medical and mental health organization in the United States has issued a statement condemning the use of reparative therapy.
Psychiatrist Dr. L. Spitzer, who once offered a study on reparative therapy, has since denounced the practice and has apologized for endorsing the practice. Read more here.
“Herman Cain’s opinion that being gay is a choice has no basis in current scientific thinking,” said Dr. Jack Drescher, MD, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the DSM-5 Workgroup on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. “Not only is homosexuality ‘not a choice,’ as most efforts to try and change a person’s sexual orientation fail, but some attempts to change can cause harm and damage to an individual’s well-being.”
Dr. Drescher also served as a past chair of APA’s Committee on GLB Issues.
Research on the Impacts of Reparative Therapy, Harms Caused by Societal Prejudice
In 2007, a task force of the American Psychological Association undertook a thorough review of the existing research on the efficacy of reparative therapy. Their report noted that there was very little methodologically sound research on sexual orientation change efforts (SOCEs) and that the “results of scientifically valid research indicate that it is unlikely that individuals will be able to reduce same-sex attractions or increase other-sex sexual attractions through SOCE.” In addition, the task force found that “there are no methodologically sound studies of recent SOCE that would enable the task force to make a definitive statement about whether or not recent SOCE is safe or harmful and for whom.” Read the full report.
In short, there is clear evidence that reparative therapy does not work, and some significant evidence that it is also harmful to LGBT people.”
Finally, some statistics to show you how wrong you are: http://whatstheharm.net/reparativetherapy.html