A New Low? A Look at Bans on Pro-Heterosexual Therapy and the Threats They Pose to Religious Liberty and Client Autonomy

Client Rights and Government Wrongs, Introduction

Harm doesn’t come from a therapist who operates with compassion and a desire to help a client who is seeking help. Harm comes as a result of being told we have to live with these unwanted desires and have no hope of change! In my case, therapy was an important part of my journey but real change happened when I truly surrendered my life to Christ.
—George Carneal Jr., author of From Queer To Christ: My Journey Into The Light—

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Key points: The good news of the temporary delay in the push to impose a ban on any and all pro-heterosexual therapy or counseling in California should not overshadow the ominous implications of an increasing number of bans on such therapy for minors. Most people don’t realize—but they should—that advocates of therapy bans undermine their own arguments with their own research!

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All the articles in this series are available here.

Advocates of religious liberty and freedom of speech received good news on Friday, August 31. California Assembly Member Evan Low, a homosexual and the author of Assembly Bill 2943, withdrew the bill for this legislative session. Assemblyman Low had met with religious leaders who expressed serious concerns about the proposal. Pulling the bill, Low said, “I left those productive conversations feeling hopeful. I believe every person who attended these meetings left with a greater understanding for the underlying reason and intention of this bill to create a loving and inclusive environment for all. However, I believe there is still more to learn.”

Low added, “The best policy is not made in a vacuum and in order to advance the strongest piece of legislation, the bill requires additional time to allow for an inclusive process not hampered by legislative deadlines. With a hopeful eye toward the future, I share with you that, despite the support the bill received in the Assembly and Senate, I will not be sending AB 2943 to the Governor this year. I am committed to continuing to work towards creating a policy that best protects and celebrates the identities of LGBT Californians and a model for the nation to look towards.”

With the withdrawal, the proposed legislation dies for the time being. Many Californians and others are grateful to Low for his action. Even so, similar legislation is certain to be introduced in the future.

We reported on AB 2943 in an earlier post dated April 14 of this year.

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Currently, in ten states, with a good possibility that Maryland will become the eleventh, minors cannot legally receive professional counseling from a pro-heterosexual perspective to help them deal with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria. Such counseling has been outlawed! Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), explains part of the reason: Gay activists have misrepresented and demonized legitimate counseling approaches (also go here)—often called reparative therapy—to help encourage heterosexuality. They have overtaken many professional groups and insist on pro-homosexual counseling regardless of the clients’ desires. The American College of Pediatricians stands out as the rare exception.

And now, things are growing even worse. The gay lobby has become a powerful and arrogant player in American life—so powerful and arrogant, in fact, that it is in the process of imposing it’s own “absolutes” on society at large.

For some time, California has been futile ground for coercive LGBT legislation. Now it could become the first state in the nation to ban reparative therapy for everyone! If payment is involved, all forms of this kind of therapy, even counseling given through the sale of a book and in a religious setting from a religious perspective, would be outlawed. In a Facebook post [the content of which is now available here], former Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon calls the proposal “the biggest effort at book banning, the banning of counseling services and church conferences, the banning of academic courses, and a general banning of free speech in the history of the United States.” He warns, “Any counselor that suggests to clients that homosexual practice or transgender identification is in any way wrong or unhealthy, irrespective of whether they offer ‘orientation change’ services will become a criminal in the eyes of the state.”

Any counselor that suggests to clients that homosexual practice or transgender identification is in any way wrong or unhealthy, irrespective of whether they offer “orientation change” services will become a criminal in the eyes of the state.
—Robert A. J. Gagnon—

On television, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Matt Sharp sounded the alarm.

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Before considering where we go from here following Evan Low’s withdrawal of AB 2943, we do well to take a step back. It is critical for us to understand the efforts to pass AB 2943 against the backdrop of an increasing number of bans on pro-heterosexual therapy for minors experiencing same-sex attraction.

In this post we will look at the bans on counseling minors, and next time consider the future, as efforts to enact AB 2943-type legislation certainly will occur.

Bans on Therapy for Minors

Since I wrote and published the April 14 post, the number of states banning reparative therapy for minors has shot up to 14, as of 9/6/18. They are listed below in the order of the date each ban took, or is set to take, effect.

1. New Jersey
2. California
3. Oregon
4. Illinois
5. Vermont
6. New Mexico
7. Connecticut
8. Rhode Island
9. Nevada
10. Washington
11. Hawaii
12. Delaware
13. Maryland (takes effect October 1, 2018)
14. New Hampshire (takes effect January 1, 2019)

Maine would have become the 15th state to ban reparative therapy for minors, but on July 6, 2018, Republican Governor Paul LePage, to his credit, vetoed legislation that would have criminalized it. The bill would have prohibited “any practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including, but not limited to, any effort to change gender expression or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.”

Governor LePage said in a veto statement,

LD (Legislative Document) 912 was overbroad and bad policy.…

[A]s the bill was written–“any practice or course of treatment”–can call into question a simple conversation. This is so broad that licensed professionals would be prohibited from counseling an individual even at the individual’s own request.

We should not prohibit professionals from providing their expertise to those who seek it for their own personal questions like, “How do I deal with these feelings I am experiencing?”

The Democrats won’t let a 14-year-old start the workday before 7 a.m., but, under this bill, a medical professional could not have open conversations with minors considering hormone therapy about the potential and irreversible effects of delaying puberty.

There are other issues. Per recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, regulations on the content of clinical speech may violate the First Amendment. The bill could also be interpreted as a threat to an individual’s religious beliefs.

No evidence was presented during public hearings that indicates licensed professionals in our state are practicing conversion therapy as described in the bill.

Because their standard of practice already prohibits any therapy amounting to physical or mental abuse, what LD 912 attempts to regulate are private, consultative conversations with a client.

Use of pro-heterosexual therapy with minors also is banned in the following areas.

1. the District of Columbia
2. Cincinnati, Ohio
3. Miama Beach, Florida
4. Wilton Manors, Florida
5. Seattle, Washington
6. Miami, Florida
7. West Palm Beach, Florida
8. Bay Harbor Islands, Florida
9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
10. Boynton Beach, Florida
11. Lake Worth, Florida
12. El Portal, Florida
13. Toledo, Ohio
14. Key West, Florida
15. North Bay Village, Florida
16. Columbus, Ohio
17. Tampa, Florida
18. Delray Beach, Florida
19. Riviera Beach, Florida
20. Wellington, Florida
21. Dayton, Ohio
22. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
23. Allentown, Pennsylvania
24. Greenacres, Florida
25. Athens, Ohio
26. Pima County, Arizona
27. Boca Raton, Florida
28. Oakland Park, Florida
29. Palm Beach County, Florida
30. Reading, Pennsylvania
31. Doylestown, Pennsylvania
32. Broward County, Florida
33. State College, Pennsylvania
34. Erie County, New York
35. Yardley, Pennsylvania
36. Gainesville, Florida
37. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
38. New York City, New York
39. Albany, New York
40. Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
41. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
42. Madison, Wisconsin
43. Ulster County, New York
44. Rochester, New York
45. Albany County, New York

Like a steamroller, it seems, the homosexual lobby’s version of “tolerance” is running roughshod over the rights of young people and their parents. Keep in mind that these bans prohibit this kind of therapy regardless of the wishes of potential clients!

Therapy Bans—Unscientific and Coercive

The American College of Pediatricians, which apparently is the lone professional organization that has refused to bow to political correctness, states,

Pediatricians, mental health providers, educators, and policy makers need to know there is no evidence that psychotherapy for UHA [unwanted homosexual attraction] is any more or less harmful than the use of psychotherapy to treat any other unwanted psychological or behavioral adaptation. Therefore, science does not support laws that prohibit minors with UHA from receiving psychotherapy in accordance with their personal goals and values (emphasis added).

David Pickup is a professional counselor who specializes in reparative therapy. A ban on therapy for minors has gained support in Massachusetts, where a number of his clients live. He communicated with a reporter for the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle-Tribune about his work for an article the paper published July 2, 2017. He does not use the techniques that therapy-ban supporters say are true of “conversion therapy.”

David Pickup, a family counselor with offices in Texas and California, said he uses “reparative therapy” on teenagers from Massachusetts and other states whose parents want them to “address unwanted homosexual feelings.”

“We only do therapy for clients, a lot of which are in Massachusetts, who believe that for them, homosexual feelings arise because of emotional wounding, sometimes sexual abuse,” he said in a written statement. “We don’t treat people who [believe they] are born that way.”

Thus, when we speak of therapy, we are not talking about a coercive approach that shames clients and runs roughshod over them. (You can learn more about David Pickup’s approach here.) While therapy to overcome unwanted same-sex attraction can be intense and challenging, it is not automatically harmful and can be very helpful and effective.

Additionally, in locations without bans, no one forces another to receive any type of counseling or therapy. Yet where bans do exist, those who want therapy are forced, against their wills, either to find it where they can receive it legally (in some cases many miles away) or to abandon efforts to get it altogether. Thus, the bans themselves are coercive!

Did You Know?

The truth about therapy and counseling must get a hearing! So many myths are out there, perpetrated by LGBT activists. Don’t be taken in!

The Family Research Council is committed to proclaiming the truth. Not many people know this, but in a significant number of instances, pro-LGBT sources undermine their own arguments for bans on therapy, and they do so with their own research! FRC’s Peter Sprigg exposes these inconsistencies in an important document titled “The Hidden Truth About Changing Sexual Orientation: Ten Ways Pro-LGBT Sources Undermine the Case for Therapy Bans.” The document is available from FRC here, or you can download it here.

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In a number of instances, pro-LGBT sources actually undermine their own arguments for bans on therapy, and they do so with their own research! Here is proof!

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Moreover, with or without formal therapy, many thousands of former homosexuals have changed. For many of these courageous men and women, the core reason they’ve experienced change is found in their relationship with Jesus Christ. In early May, a group of them met together in Washington, DC to publicly celebrate their transformations and share their stories. A similar gathering of former homosexuals is planned on November 4, 2018 in Los Angeles.

Here’s the point: Change is possible, and the men and women who have experienced it and are sharing their stories are living proof!

Visit the Freedom March Facebook page.

Protect the Innocent!

While we can be grateful that the threat of AB 2943 motivated the church and other concerned citizens to speak out favor of clients’ rights and religious liberty (also go here), we consistently must sound the alarm regarding the harmful effects of banning therapy for minors. After all, children continue to be targeted by LGBT activists in public policy decisions around the country. Consider the bills that did pass in California and that await Governor Brown’s signature or veto pen.

Church, Wake Up!

Jesus had strong words for people who tempt young ones to do evil. He said, “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:4-6).

But I’m not tempting anyone! someone will say. Maybe you aren’t directly, but if you fail to speak out and act to protect and help those who are being tempted, you are complicit in their being led astray! Keep in mind that temptations to explore one’s sexuality and to embrace a gay identity are nearly everywhere in our culture, especially among the young.

The church must repent of its inaction in this area, educate itself, and act to defend those who cannot defend themselves. Among other things, the church should be a place where God’s design for males and females is affirmed and celebrated. Masculinity, femininity, heterosexuality, man-woman marriage, children, and the importance of the family unit are all a part of this mix.

Next time, as we have said, we’ll consider the future of AB 2943-type legislation.

 

This article is an introduction to a series titled “Clients’ Rights and Government Wrongs.” Part 1 is available here.

top image credit: Photo by Emma Goldsmith on Unsplash