Tag Archives: reparative therapy

medical news, State news

'Gay conversion therapy' going strong in Texas

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Texas politicians seem to think they’re the onlyĀ correct thinkers in a nation that seems to be going in the opposite direction.

An example? Gay conversion therapy, which is drawing opposition from medical professionals and politicians throughout the land, appears to be showing no signs of slowing down in Texas, according to the Texas Tribune.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/18/opposition-gay-conversion-therapy-grows/

Have mercy on us all.

Gay conversion therapy seeks to persuade people that they aren’t actually gay. Never mind scientific evidence that someone’s sexual orientation is built into their DNA the same way, say, their hair and eye colors are built in.

That hasn’t stopped politicians from suggesting that a healthy dose of religious teaching, which the critics contend is occurring, will get rid of someone’s homosexual urges. As the Tribune reports, “TheĀ American Psychiatric Association hasĀ condemnedĀ it, and experts say it can cause mental harm to individuals.”

Hey, what does a group of trained medical professionals know?

The Tribune reports further: “David Pickup, who practices reparative therapy in California and Texas, said he was upset by the presidentā€™s words last week and feels reparative therapy has been mischaracterized.

ā€œ’Words hurt sometimes, and some of our clients have been upset about his public condemnation of these things ā€” it has really hurt their feelings,’ Pickup said. ‘Reparative therapy is there for people who believe that for them, homosexual impulses arise not because of something genetic but because of emotional and sexual abuse.’ā€

State Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, has been trying to get a hearing before the House State Affairs Committee. She’s been stonewalled so far. Israel is hoping at least to get the subject on the table for some open debate.

Something tells me that with conservatives owning a supermajority in the House of Representatives and a strong majority in the Senate, the chances of at least a hearing are somewhere between slim and none.

Meanwhile, Texas will stand increasingly alone in standing by the notion that you can convert gay people into something they are not.

 

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Sexual orientation is no disease

One more comment on Gov. Rick Perry’s foray into gay politics and then I’m done.

I just read Paul Burka’s blog post on the subject. Here it is:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/rick-perry-homosexuality

Burka’s fundamental point is a simple, but quite profound, one. Alcoholism is a treatable disease; homosexuality is not.

Perry was asked at a California political gathering if he thought being gay is a disorder. He liked it to alcoholism. “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that. And I look at the homosexual issue in the same way,” Perry said.

I’ve noted already, so I won’t belabor the point, but the two issues simply are not connected at any level.

And yet, the Texas Republican Party has adopted a platform plank that suggests that someone can be counseled out of being gay through what the GOP calls “reparative therapy.”

Whatever has become of the Texas Republican Party? The goofballs are in charge.

There. On this subject, I’m out.

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It's official: Texas GOP has gone mad

This idea might not be a flash for some folks, but it is to me.

The Texas Republican Party has officially flipped its wig, gone bananas, become certifiably insane by adopting a plank it its party platform that endorses the notion that gay people can be made un-gay by something called “reparative therapy.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-gop-endorses-reparative-therapy-gays-n125471

The Texas GOP has concluded its meeting in Fort Worth. It came down hard on a lot of policy issues dealing with immigration, abortion and climate change. They disagree with Democrats on all those things. I get that.

It’s the idea, though, that gay folks can be counseled away from their orientation that simply blows my ever-loving mind.

I say this as a heterosexual male who never once — at any time in my life — decided I would prefer to be intimate with females.

And it’s that understanding of human sexuality that simply makes this Republican Party platform plank so difficult to accept.

Of all the gay people I’ve ever known or read about, never have I heard of someone choosing to be scorned, vilified, demonized, insulted, assaulted or otherwise denigrated because they choose to love someone of the same sex.

According to the Texas Republican Party, however, “reparative therapy” suggests that homosexuality is a preferred lifestyle rather than an orientation to which someone is born. The platform plank adopted by the GOP says that the party recognizes “the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle.”

There you have it.

The Republican Party of Texas has slammed itself into reverse and is heading into the Dark Ages.

Amazing.