Ex-Gay' Therapy Ban Challenged By Lawsuit From Teen's Parent

[doggie]

this poor kid seems pretty screwed up by his parents and they want to make it worse. looks like a really flaky social worker too. poor kid.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/0 ... 20811.html

A South Jersey couple has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Chris Christie for signing a law this summer prohibiting licensed therapists from providing gay-to-straight “conversion†therapy to children, saying it infringes on their rights to free speech, religion and to parent their teenage son “free from unconstitutional government interference.â€

The unidentified parents sought conversion therapy on behalf of their 15-year-old son, who began “experiencing gender identity disorder when he was around nine years old,†according to the complaint, filed in federal court in Camden.

The teen has “frequently thought of killing himself because he did not like himself. … He remembers having a bias against the male gender and thinking boys were stupid because his mother talked negatively about his father,†according to the complaint. “He experienced feelings of despair because he believed that he would never be good enough if he remained a boy.â€

In 2011, he started meeting with a licensed social worker in New York, who has “helped him tremendously†reduce his homosexual urges. The social worker recommended meeting with a licensed psychotherapist to delve into “the background causes†of his feelings.

The family contacted “one of the premier†conversion licensed therapists, Ronald Newman, to help their son, their attorney Demetrios Stratis of Fair Lawn said, but was told that the governor had signed a bill into law on Aug. 19 banning the practice.

Stratis is also representing the therapist, Newman of Linwood; Tara King, a therapist in Brick; the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality; and the American Association of Christian Counselors in a separate lawsuit against the state challenging the law.

[Mama Mia]

Um, are the parents confused? Or the social worker? Cause it sounds like he's saying he's transgender, but they are sending him to therapy to make him not be homosexual? I am confused

[doggie]

Um, are the parents confused? Or the social worker? Cause it sounds like he's saying he's transgender, but they are sending him to therapy to make him not be homosexual? I am confused

there is no such thing as transgender in the fundy world only homosexual men. I looked up National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and it sure looks nasty and I bet they can't work out what way toilet paper goes on the holder.

[Terrie]

NARTH is a hate group that hides behind the smoke sceen of junk science.

[Alice_Fraggle]

there is no such thing as transgender in the fundy world only homosexual men. I looked up National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and it sure looks nasty and I bet they can't work out what way toilet paper goes on the holder.

I love that last line!

This stuff frustrates the snot out of me. I agree that it sounds like the boy is saying he's transgender, and he could be a very happy young man if he were allowed to accept that, or for it to stop being demonized, and not be forced into conversion "therapy". Poor kid.

This does make me wonder if conversion "therapy" would work the other way to make a straight person gay. Not that it's something that should be attempted (because it's STUPID!), but just one of those weird things that floats through my brain on occasion.