Sunday, February 10, 2013

Leading Medical/Mental Health Organizations File Briefs About "Ex-Gay" Therapy Harms





While we have charlatan "ex-gays for pay like Matt Moore peddling the cynical myth that gays can become "straight" through therapy and "accepting Jesus," leading medical and mental health organizations have filed amicus briefs with the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit urging the Court to uphold California's ban on "ex-gay" reparative therapy for those under 18 years of age.  These medical and mental health experts call out such religious motivated "therapy" - if one can even dignify the practice with that term - for what it is: fraudulent and harmful.  The sooner "ex-gay" therapy is made illegal nationwide, the better off countless LGBT individuals will be.  As for the Christofascists, they will need to just get over the fact that the selectively cited passages in Leviticus written by ignorant, uneducated nomadic herders (and repeated by the former legalistic Pharisee St. Paul) are simply false.  Better yet, they ought to seek therapy for themselves to discover what motives their sick and selfish need to condemn others so that they can feel better about their own small self-centered lives.  Here are excerpts from an article detailing information of these briefs: 


(San Francisco, CA, February 8, 2013)—A diverse group of prominent mental health professional organizations and social services providers, scholars of constitutional and health care law, civil liberties and religious organizations, the City and County of San Francisco, and individuals and family members filed ten friend-of-the-court briefs this week urging the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a 2012 California law that prohibits licensed therapists from trying to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender expression. 

The law, which was signed by California Governor Jerry Brown on September 29, 2012, prohibits state-licensed therapists from attempting to change the sexual orientation or gender expression of a patient under 18 years old. Anti-LGBT legal groups challenged the law in October, 2012, primarily representing California therapists who engage in these practices. Those lawsuits are now before the Ninth Circuit, which will hear arguments on April 17. . . .

On Wednesday, the California Psychological Association, the California Division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the National Association of Social Workers urged the court to permit the law to take effect because the leading mental health professional organizations “agree that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and have advised against practices that attempt to change an individual’s sexual orientation.”

Twelve regional and national organizations that work with LGBTQ youth .  .  .  .  .  also filed a brief supporting the law. The brief recounts the first-hand experiences of youth who have suffered severe mental and physical health problems as a result of attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender expression, including suicide attempts, cutting and other self-injurious behaviors, severe anxiety, and depression. For example, the brief describes a young woman who called the Trevor Project’s helpline who, after seeing a therapist who tried to change her sexual orientation, “has attempted suicide several times” and “prays that she will die in an accident.”

Another brief tells the stories of individuals who underwent efforts to change their sexual orientation and as a result were plagued for years by problems such as severe anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and drug abuse. The brief includes the story of Kirk Murphy, who as a child in the early 1970s was subjected to an experiment designed to prevent children from growing up to be gay by the University of California at Los Angeles. Murphy’s family was counseled to reward “masculine” behavior and punish “feminine” behavior. Murphy’s sister recalls that these techniques severely damaged her brother, making him withdrawn, isolated and self-conscious. Murphy, a gay man, ultimately died by suicide at the age of 38.

The City and County of San Francisco filed a brief describing how these practices contribute to high rates of homelessness and other serious health problems among LGBT youth, many of whom flock to San Francisco after being rejected by their families. Religious organizations and leaders, including California Faith for Equality and the California Council of Churches, Justice and Witness Ministries, United Church of Christ, and the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of California, among others, also submitted a brief asking the court to uphold the California law.

“The friend-of-the-court briefs filed in this case underscore the unified message of all leading medical, mental health, and child welfare advocates—efforts to change a child’s sexual orientation are cruel, damaging, and have no place in the provision of mental health care,” said Shannon Minter, Legal Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “These briefs make an overwhelming case for the necessity for this law, which is now being looked to as a model by a number of other states.”

Law firms and legal organizations representing groups filing friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the California law included: ACLU Foundation Of Northern California, Inc.; Arnold & Porter LLP; Covington & Burling LLP; Foley & Lardner LLP; Dennis J. Herrera, City Attorney of San Francisco; Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP; Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP; Jon B. Eisenberg, Esq.; Eric Alan Isaacson, Esq.; Stacey M. Kaplan, Esq.; and Barry R. Levy, Esq.  

Its noteworthy that some of the law firms involved are among the most powerful and prestigious in the country.  It is telling that the only ones opposing the law are (i) cynical quacks enriching themselves at the expense of the well being of their patients and (ii) religious extremist organizations who fund bogus "research" to justify their persecution of LGBT individuals and efforts to deny us equal civil legal rights.

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