Should Virginia Colleges and Universities Ban "Ex-Gay" Propaganda?

Despite all of the condemnation of fraudulent "ex-gay" therapy by legitimate medical and mental health associations, the Christofascists  continue to strive to market the lie that sexual orientation can "change" and that being gay is a "choice."  Now, as the Washington Post reports, "ex-gay" frauds are trying to target Virginia colleges and universities with their lies and bogus claims that one can "pray away the gay," something I found after 37 years of trying simply doesn't work.  All it does is breed self-hate, self-loathing, and in some instances suicide.  Here are story highlights on the efforts to peddle this poison in Virginia (previous posts have looked at the failed efforts of these charlatans to market "Ex-Gay Awareness Month” - only 15 of the claimed "hundreds of thousands of ex-gays" showed up):

There continue to be people in this world who think that homosexuality is a disease or condition and that a gay person can be “cured.” One such group is called Voice of the Voiceless, and in celebration of “Ex-Gay Awareness Month,” Voiceless president Christopher Doyle conducted an undercover investigation in September to see if Virginia’s public universities were providing information on ways to become un-gay.

At George Mason University in Fairfax, Doyle visited the school’s LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual Questioning) counseling center, where students can go to discuss questions about their sexuality. . . . . He claimed that he “nearly begged the counselor to give me an ex-gay pamphlet, which was buried in the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet.” Such a pamphlet would suggest “reparative” or “conversion” therapy, so that a homosexual might be “repaired” (as in currently broken) or “converted” (to the proper setting of heterosexual). A publication for school officials by the American Psychological Association says that “the most important fact about these ‘therapies’ is that they are based on a view of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major mental health professions.”

There isn’t much dispute in the scientific community that sexual orientation cannot be “treated” by psychotherapy or prayer (or drugs or snake-handling or anything else), and Germanos notes that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association and the American Psychiatric Association all advise against reparative therapy. (I would add to that list the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers and the World Health Organization.)

The vice president of university life at GMU, Rose Pascarell, also told Germanos that such therapy, being rejected by mainstream medical thought, “is not a healthy response to the individuals and their questions and concerns about their sexual orientation.” Pascarell and Chollar also told Germanos that Doyle’s press release was misleading, that he did not immediately ask for “undoing homosexuality literature,” and that Chollar asked Doyle if he were from an ex-gay group.

So the question becomes, When is it appropriate for a public university to offer information about a thoroughly discredited belief? California and New Jersey have both banned “reparative therapy” to undo homosexuality, calling it dangerous. In June, the largest group devoted to changing sexual orientation, Exodus International, shut down and its leader apologized for its misdirected work.

The obvious answer is that public colleges and universities need to refuse to disseminate "ex-gay" information.  Indeed, should they do so, they could be creating legal liability for themselves should students harm themselves after engaging in this bogus, psychologically harmful "therapy."  If churches and quacks like Doyle want to peddle this snake oil, they need to do it off campus and on their own dime.