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TURNING GAY MINORS STRAIGHT....

Davey1965 Blog Last Activity 11 years ago 559 views 12 comments
A federal appeals court has put the brakes on a first-of-its-kind California law that bans therapy aimed at turning gay minors straight.

A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency order putting the law on hold until the court can hear full arguments on the measure's constitutionality. The law was set to take effect January 1.

Licensed counsellors who practice so-called "reparative therapy" and two families who say their teenage sons have benefited from it sought the injunction after a lower court judge refused the request.

The law, which was passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Jerry Brown this autumn, stated that therapists and counsellors who use "sexual orientation change efforts" on clients under 18 would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by state licensing boards.

The appeals court's order prevents the state from enforcing the law, SB1172, while a different three-judge panel considers if the measure violates the First Amendment rights of therapists and parents.

Liberty Counsel President Mathew Staver, whose Christian legal aide group is representing reparative therapy practitioners and recipients in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the law, applauded the court's decision to grant his request to delay its implementation.

"This law is politically motivated to interfere with counsellors and clients. Liberty Counsel is thankful that the 9th Circuit blocked the law from going into effect," Staver said. "This law is an astounding overreach by the government into the realm of counselling and would have caused irreparable harm."

Backers of the ban say the state is obligated to outlaw reparative therapy because the practice puts young people at risk and has been rejected by every mainstream mental health association. After signing SB1172, the governor called the therapies it would outlaw "quackery" that "have no basis in science or medicine".

Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which helped fight for the law's passage, said the measure's supporters shouldn't read too much into the order, released on Friday (local time).

"It's disappointing because there shouldn't even be a temporary delay of this law, but this is completely irrelevant to the final outcome," Minter said.

The brief order did not explain the panel's thinking. The 9th Circuit has requested briefs on the case's broader constitutional issues but has not scheduled arguments.

"California was correct to outlaw this unsound and harmful practice, and the attorney general will vigorously defend this law," said Lynda Gledhill, press secretary to Attorney General Kamala Harris.

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Earlier this month, two federal trial judges in California arrived at opposite conclusions on whether the law violates the Constitution.

On December 4, US District Judge Kimberly Mueller refused to block the law after concluding that the plaintiffs represented by Staver were unlikely to prove the ban on "conversion" therapy unfairly tramples on their civil rights and should therefore be overturned.

The opponents argued the law would make them liable for discipline if they merely recommended the therapy to patients or discuss it with them. Mueller said they didn't demonstrate that they were likely to win, so she wouldn't block the law.

Mueller's decision came half a day after US District Judge William Shubb handed down a somewhat competing ruling in a separate lawsuit filed by a psychiatrist, a licensed counsellor and a former patient who is studying to practice gay conversion therapy.

Shubb said he found the First Amendment issues presented by the ban to be compelling. He ordered the state to temporarily exempt the three people named in the case before him.

- AP

Comments

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sawndry
11 years ago

During World War II, some nazi doctors did anything unwanted subjects with the agreement of governments. This therapy called restorative violates the most basic morality. If you asked to yourself about your sexuality, you have grown to answer to yourself. It is preferable don't have did it with interferences. This therepy is an interference.
Imagine what it is going to do to vulnerable people with parental consent. The technical may allow certain things but it does nothing morally justified. Reminds me of when I saw Catholic nuns beat children because he was left-handed. I saw him and the child was my brother. Today, who will be beaten for left handling?

Davey1965
11 years ago

10 years in prison is good for that

Davey1965
11 years ago

Google gay conversion therapy techniques

Davey1965
11 years ago

http://www.radford.edu/~ehish/Reparative%20Therapies.pd

11 years ago

so what does this therapy mean? what hapens? can somone tell me

Davey1965
11 years ago

There Should be A law that says that NO person can Interfere with another persons Biological make up and what there born with.Just look at the Dammage thats done to Girls or boys that want to become the opposite Sex and they cant because their parents dont want that.
No new laws should take us backwards in the process of Human Rights.
If i was a Teen in Any Country and i wanted to be Gay,then i would like a law to protect my rights as an Idividual to determine my own Sexual Status....

11 years ago

Clearly you have never been subjected to the kind of things that go on in reparative therapy. And it does cause issues, a child in their early teens or earlier that is still in a questioning place, is very vulnerable to it. Damien, you sometimes have a a very flippant attitude and tone. Very little empathy in your world. It is too bad.

11 years ago

But u can hav all the parent consent in the world - an the guy can jus sit there an go to sleep or tell the therrepist to go fuck himself. If the guy takes part he is agreing to it is how i see it.

11 years ago

The law bans the therapy for minors. A minor cannot give a consent for treatment. This therapy is usually done with parental consent since they don't want a queer child. And the evidence is that is causes particular harm to youth. That is the reason it was passed.

11 years ago

i kinda agree this law is oversteping the mark by the govt - anyone havin any therepy must be consenting to it, no one can 'make you' do anythin like this inmy opinion

stargeeyzer
11 years ago

definately a victim here, from 20 years ago, of this silly mess of a theory....they'll fuck up the whole wide world just to say they turned somebody straight...it doesn't work, but it might get you some pussy in the interim, lol