Pennsylvania Lawmakers Seek To Ban Homosexual Conversion Therapy

[The Straight Story]

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It’ll be a full-court-press to make Pennsylvania the third state to ban “conversion therapy” for minors. That’s a controversial technique to reverse a gay or lesbian child’s sexual orientation.

Conversion or reparative therapy has been on the decline for decades since major medical organizations declared that homosexuality is not an illness. California and New Jersey have banned the practice. A Federal appeals court upheld the California ban, so Pennsylvania state senator Anthony Williams, sponsor of a ban bill, hopes to have the practice on the run.

“It is very, very, very aggressive,” Williams said. “This is not simply a preacher sitting down and talking to his son and daughter about his perspectives because they will allow to be able to do that. A parent can say whatever perspective they have about one’s sexual orientation but what they will no longer have the ability to do is hire someone that will physically intimidate their child, torture their child, punish their child and do it with the sanction of the state.”

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/09/18/pennsylvania-lawmakers-seek-to-ban-homosexual-conversion-therapy/

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Conversion therapy is an abomination that corrupts the meaning of the word "therapy."

It's dangerous, it's harmful, it's dehumanizing, and it's unethical. It should be outlawed everywhere.

Other than these minor objections, I have no problem with it.


Here is what the American Psychological Assn says on the topic:

(Chicago, August 14, 1997). The Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association (APA) has passed a resolution affirming four basic principles with regard to treatments to alter sexual orientation, so-called conversion or reparative therapies.

These principles are:

Homosexuality is not a mental disorder and the APA opposes all portrayals of lesbian, gay and bisexual people as mentally ill and in need of treatment due to their sexual orientation;

Psychologists do not knowingly participate in or condone discriminatory practices with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients;

Psychologists respect the rights of individuals, including lesbian, gay and bisexual clients to privacy, confidentiality, self-determination and autonomy;

Psychologists obtain appropriate informed consent to therapy in their work with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients.

The resolution further states that the APA "urges all mental health professionals to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientation."

Supporters of the resolution, which passed the APA Council overwhelmingly by a voice vote, believed that it was critical for the Association to make such a statement due to the questions of the ethics, efficacy and benefits of conversion therapy which are now being debated within the profession and within society as a whole.

"Our concern," stated Douglas Haldeman, Ph.D., President of APA's Society for the Psychological Study Of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues, "is that a person, especially a young person, who enters into therapy to deal with issues of sexual orientation should be able to have the expectation that such therapy would take place in a professionally neutral environment absent of any societal bias. Additionally, therapists should be providing clients with accurate information about same-sex sexual orientation. This resolution reasserts the profession's commitment to those two principles."