Ninth Circuit Upholds Californai Ban on "Ex-Gay" Therapy for Minors

The forces of evil - i.e., the Christofascists and other supporters of "ex-gay" therapy - suffered another major loss yesterday when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California's ban on "ex-gay" therapy for minors.  As noted many times on this blog, perpetuating the myth that being gay is a "choice" and subject to "cure" is a critical element of the Christofascist agenda to deprive LGBT individuals of legal protections and equal civil rights.  New Jersey has passed a similar ban and bills that would impose similar bans on the dangerous and fraudulent therapy are pending in at least three states (including Virginia).  The National Center for Lesbian Rights has details on this welcomed action by the Ninth Circuit.  Here are highlights from a press release on the ruling:

(San Francisco, CA, January 29, 2014)—Today, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit let stand an earlier decision by a three-judge panel of the same court upholding Senate Bill 1172, a California statute enacted in 2012 that protects minors from dangerous and ineffective mental health treatments that falsely claim to be able to change a young person’s sexual orientation.

The California Legislature enacted the law to prevent state-licensed mental health professionals from attempting to change the sexual orientation or gender expression of minor patients. The Legislature based the law on the unanimous consensus of the nation’s leading medical and mental health associations that such purported treatments have no scientific basis and put children at risk of serious harms, including depression and suicide.

In the lawsuit that the Ninth Circuit ruled in today, the statute was challenged by therapists who wish to engage in these practices on minor patients and who argued that the law violated their right to freedom of speech.  In August 2013, a panel of the Ninth Circuit held that California’s law was a permissible regulation of medical treatment to protect public health and safety and did not violate the free speech rights of therapists. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling today allows that decision to stand, thereby ensuring that California’s law will remain in effect.

New Jersey enacted a similar law in 2013. A federal district court upheld New Jersey’s law on November 8, 2013, and that law is currently the subject of an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In that litigation, NCLR represents Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBT rights organization.

As stated before, these bans need to be enacted nationwide and to the extent quacks hiding behind religious based "ministries" that continue to subject minors to such "therapy" needs to be sued for the harm that they do.   As for parents forcing their children into such voodoo like therapy, they need to be prosecuted for child abuse.