Texas GOP advances 'reparative therapy' for gays

[doggie]

as if texas could get any worse then it does.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268773/conten ... d=HU7qbwYc

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - The Texas Republican Party would endorse psychological treatment that seeks to turn gay people straight under a new platform partly aimed at rebuking laws in California and New Jersey that ban so-called "reparative therapy" on minors.

A push to include the new anti-gay language survived a key vote late Thursday in Fort Worth at the Texas Republican Convention where, across the street, tea party star U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz fired up attendees at a rally to defend marriage as between a man and a woman.

Under the new proposed plank, the Texas GOP will "recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle."

The full convention of nearly 10,000 delegates from across Texas will take a final vote on the platform Saturday.

Gay conservatives in Texas could still emerge with a rare victory on a separate issue: removing decades-old platform language that states, "Homosexuality tears at the fabric of society." Stripping that phrasing survived a sometimes-tense challenge from hardliners who not only wanted to preserve it, but wanted to replace "homosexuality" with "sexual sins."

[Full enough quiver]

As long as the people getting the therapy are adults, I think it's fine. I don't think it works, since being gay isn't a choice, but if an adult wants to repress their sexuality, it's none of my business . I feel sorry for anyone that hates that part of themselves, that they would want to push it away, rather than accepting and embracing who they truly are. I wish I could give them a hug, and tell them that they're still a good person, and being gay doesn't mean they'll go to hell. I wish I could help them love themselves just as they are. But if an adult feels that this type of quack "therapy" would be useful to them, and they want to waste their time and money, that's their right. It's when they try to force it on kids that it becomes an issue.

[DGayle]

As long as the people getting the therapy are adults, I think it's fine. I don't think it works, since being gay isn't a choice, but if an adult wants to repress their sexuality, it's none of my business . I feel sorry for anyone that hates that part of themselves, that they would want to push it away, rather than accepting and embracing who they truly are. I wish I could give them a hug, and tell them that they're still a good person, and being gay doesn't mean they'll go to hell. I wish I could help them love themselves just as they are. But if an adult feels that this type of quack "therapy" would be useful to them, and they want to waste their time and money, that's their right. It's when they try to force it on kids that it becomes an issue.

By legitimizing these "therapies" at all, this gives power to bigots to oppress their gay kids. It's really hard to say therapy can only be for adults, and as long as there are these anti-gay camps, bigots can tell their gay kids that it'll all be okay, as soon as they turn 18, they can go away and get converted. Do we really want to give the bigots a tool to hold over kids?

Since nothing actually converts a gay person to straight, allowing these therapy centers to operate at all is to allow them to sell something that doesn't actually exist.

[Full enough quiver]

I agree that its completely ineffective and unnecessary bullshit, but unfortunately, adults are free to indulge in any therapy they find helpful. I personally think homeopathic medicine is mostly crap, but some people swear by it. My cousin is into hypnobirthing (huge crap) but her clients swear it works. I figure if they want to waste their money on unproven woo completely unsupported by science, that's their problem. There's lots of therapy and therapists that are a load of crap, this is just one of them.

[Toothfairy]

How can you change something you're born with? I'm sure there are tons of gay GOP members trying this out.

[thoughtful]

The Daily Show had a segment on this tonight.

They showed a clip of someone saying that it wasn't so much making the gayness go away as drawing out the heterosexuality that is inside people. :shock:

Stewart compared attempting that to performing a C-section on a woman who isn't pregnant, saying "you won't find what you are looking for, but you WILL leave a scar."

They also showed the clip of Perry comparing being gay to being an alcoholic.

[FloraKitty35]

Hello, I my name is (fill in the name of any right wing male closet case of your choice) and I am a cockaholic.

[doggie]

Hello, I my name is (fill in the name of any right wing male closet case of your choice) and I am a cockaholic.

Or ammosexual or most of the time both.

[Howl]

as if texas could get any worse then it does.

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268773/conten ... d=HU7qbwYc

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - The Texas Republican Party would endorse psychological treatment that seeks to turn gay people straight under a new platform partly aimed at rebuking laws in California and New Jersey that ban so-called "reparative therapy" on minors....Under the new proposed plank, the Texas GOP will "recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle."

I was involved in a discussion of how repellent this is in a group that included two women who have been together almost 30 years. They decided to think of reparative therapy as therapy that led to better and improved homosexuals.

Yes, adults may make their own decisions, but the problem with thinking that it is OK to make reparative therapy "legitimate" in any way is that the state will decide they then must begin paying for it or that it should be offered in high schools.

Yes, it is true, my state (Texas) is in political and social retrograde. If Ted Cruz does not scare the crap out of everyone on this forum, he should. His father (a pastor) believes Ted is anointed to become president, and Ted does too. When you look deeply, you realize that Cruz and his ilk are far right, but creeping towards claiming center right turn .

[Howl]

By legitimizing these "therapies" at all, this gives power to bigots to oppress their gay kids. It's really hard to say therapy can only be for adults, and as long as there are these anti-gay camps, bigots can tell their gay kids that it'll all be okay, as soon as they turn 18, they can go away and get converted. Do we really want to give the bigots a tool to hold over kids?

Since nothing actually converts a gay person to straight, allowing these therapy centers to operate at all is to allow them to sell something that doesn't actually exist.

This....

[DGayle]

Full Enough and Howl, sure, adults can participate in the therapies they want, but you are overlooking how these gay-conversion places are selling something that doesn't exist. They are selling a "cure" to being gay. We have consumer-protection laws that make it illegal to sell what doesn't exist. If I started selling rocks that will cure you of depression if you talk to it for five minutes a night, and call this a form of therapy, I'd be in huge trouble for fraud for selling what doesn't exist.

[Howl]

Full Enough and Howl, sure, adults can participate in the therapies they want, but you are overlooking how these gay-conversion places are selling something that doesn't exist. They are selling a "cure" to being gay. We have consumer-protection laws that make it illegal to sell what doesn't exist. If I started selling rocks that will cure you of depression if you talk to it for five minutes a night, and call this a form of therapy, I'd be in huge trouble for fraud for selling what doesn't exist.

DGayle, I actually agree with you 100%. Our state got rid of sex education in the schools and paid people to teach Abstinence Only. A similar thing, in my opinion.

The point is, the GOP platform specifically ENDORSES this type of counseling and actively seeks to legitimize it: Under the new proposed plank, the Texas GOP will “recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle.â€

This is the scary part. Notice they use the term homosexual lifestyle. If they could talk people out of having good taste, eating well and drinking nice wine, that would be sad.

[2xx1xy1JD]

It's an issue that goes beyond getting therapy for something that isn't actually a problem.

There are groups that use techniques that are not only ineffective, but downright harmful and abusive.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/n ... on-of-frau (link unbroken b/c Southern Poverty Law Center doesn't mind)

The lawsuit describes sessions that involved clients undressing in front of a mirror and even a group session where young men were instructed to remove their clothing and stand naked in a circle with the counselor, Downing, who was also undressed. Another session involved a subject attempting to wrest away two oranges, which were used to represent testicles, from another individual.

Sounds like sexual abuse in the name of "therapy".

These techniques encourage clients to blame their parents for being gay. Clients even participate in violent role play exercises where they beat effigies of their mothers.

“These counselors are skilled at manipulating you into believing just about anything,†said Benjamin Unger, another plaintiff in the case. “During my time with JONAH, they told me constantly that my mom had made me gay. I was so convinced that I refused to have any contact with her for several months, which caused a great deal of damage to our relationship.â€

More active harm. Even from a religious POV, this group is just encouraging participants to violate another commandment (by not honoring parents)

The "reparative therapy" quacks tricked a religious establishment which was all-too-eager to believe that there was a magic way to change sexual orientation, so it never asked hard questions about what the "therapy" actually involved.

[lawlifelgbt]

Even the term "reparative" therapy makes me mad.

I'm not a broken TV or car you can just take into the shop and "fix." God made me this way. I don't exactly know why. But he did.

That's all I have to say about that.