New Jersey's ban on gay conversion therapy is a victory over religious nuts

[cbayer]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/21/new-jersey-outlaw-gay-conversion-therapy

It's unconscionable that parents can allow their children to die or force them to convert because of extreme religious beliefs

Jill Filipovic
theguardian.com, Wednesday 21 August 2013 10.45 EDT


Religious freedom is a US constitutional right, but the freedoms of the parent should not come at the expense of their children's basic human rights. Photograph: Niall McDiarmid/Alamy

As of this week, gay conversion therapy is outlawed in the state of New Jersey. Kids who are either gay or suspected of being gay cannot be forced by their parents to endure homophobic corrective therapy, which assemblyman and bill sponsor Tim Eustice correctly calls "an insidious form of child abuse".

Not only does conversion therapy fail to actually "convert" gay kids into straight ones, but, according to the American Psychological Association (which disavows the practice), it often leaves lasting scars, leading to mental health issues and substance abuse. California is the only other state in the nation that has attempted to ban conversion therapy, but that ban is caught up in ongoing legal battles.

Conversion therapists argue that their practice helps young people who are struggling with their sexuality, and that choosing the therapy is a First Amendment issue. Outlawing conversion therapy, they say, is one step on the "slippery slope of government infringing upon the First Amendment rights of counselors to provide, and patients to receive, counseling consistent with their religious beliefs".

Religious freedom is a constitutional right. But it's not the only one. Too often, the religious "freedom" of a parent comes at the expense of their children's basic human rights and rights to equal protection under the law. Kids are not simply extensions of their parents. They are individual people, and while they should be guided and directed and for the most part under the legal authority of their parents, their own rights to personal safety, health care and freedom from abuse should not be subsumed in some bizarro-world version of religious liberty.

more at link

[okasha]

1. One down, 49 to go.

n/t

[cbayer]

2. Looks like NY is about to do it and California has already done it.

So, we may be down to 47 soon.

[hrmjustin]

3. I am glad they are going to do it in NY.