PFOX Foams at the Mouth Over Californai Ban on Reparative Therapy

I realize that I write frequently about the "ex-gay" snake oil merchants - many of whom have no career or respectability (at least in lunatic Christofascist circles) other than through their ex-gay for pay positions.  The California legislation that would ban all reparative therapy for those under 18 and require pointed disclosure for patients (victims is a better term) over age 18.  Now, with the California bill moving forward through the state Senate (it has already passed the Assembly), the snake oil merchants are going berserk.  A case in point is the totally disingenuous and totally Christian Right funded Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays ("PFOX").    No legitimate medical or mental health association supports the use of reparative.  That's right ZERO legitimate associations.  Think Progress looks at the utter batshitery being sewed by PFOX and, in my view, the self-loathing ex-gay for pay, Greg Quinlan.  Here are some article highlights:

As SB 1172, a California bill to protect children from the harms of ex-gay therapy, continues to advance, those who defend the junk science are responding more and more desperately. PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) is a fringe group that claims to advocate for the rights of avowed ex-gays, asserting that those who have repressed their sexual orientation are victimized by LGBT activists — they are victims, but for a very different reason. The group wrote to Sen. Ted Lieu (D) last week, attacking him for sponsoring a bill that “smacks of fascism and ex-gay bashing” and harms children:

Sponsoring legislation endorsed by the gay lobby to ensure that children only receive gay-affirming therapy is an act of childhood endangerment and an unconstitutional attempt to deny parental rights everywhere  .  .  .  

You endanger youth by denying their right to receive therapeutic help, promoting homosexual behavior to sexually confused youth, and conveniently ignoring the facts about the psychological and physical health risks of sodomy.

[T]he greatest danger to children is when their identities — their very lives — are not only stigmatized by their families, but forcibly rejected through these outlandish “therapies” that have no basis in psychological research. Family rejection has significant consequences for LGBT youth, including poor academic performance, depression and substance abuse, and homelessness. In fact, LGBT youth who struggle to come out at school or home are more likely to contract HIV. PFOX may object to affirmation of gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities, but the American Academy of Pediatricians has called for such affirmation for decades, because it is in the best interest of children’s mental health. Parents have no “civil right” to subject their children to the abuse of ex-gay therapy.

A Change.org petition is rallying support for Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to sign the bill should it pass the Assembly and Senate, which it seems poised to do by the end of this month. The first of its kind, this anti-ex-gay therapy bill would revolutionize the dignity LGBT people have in society by protecting young people from harmful stigma.

I suspect that PFOX's real concern is that passage of this legislation might set the stage for more states enacting the ban and (i) protecting youth from damaging, religious based lies, and (ii) making it more difficult to be duped by frauds like Quinlan.  Should that happen, then the ex-gays for pay might have to - oh, the HORROR - find real jobs and stop preying on religiously tortured LGBT individuals and their families.