In addition to their claims of persecution and a need for "religious liberty" - translate a license to discriminate - one of the bedrock talking points of Christofascists is advancing the myth that sexual orientation is a "choice" and can be "changed." Increasingly, this myth is slamming headlong into medical and mental health knowledge that state that conversion therapy is fraudulent and simply doesn't work. As a result, more and more states are banning the practice by licensed professionals, although charlatans at "Christian ministries" have yet to be banned from peddling their snake oil and fleecing ignorant/gullible gays or, more often their parents. One of the states most committed to continuing this harmful form of consumer fraud is Texas where Republicans in the state legislature are quietly working to allow harm to be done to Texas citizens as these whore like politicians pander to Christofascists. A piece in Rewire News looks at this insidious effort. Here are excerpts:
While legislators in many states have banned the practice of so-called conversion therapy, Texas state Rep. Scott Sanford (R-McKinney) quietly filed a bill this month that would protect mental health providers who engage in practices motivated by their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
LGBTQ people and advocates view this as a thinly veiled attempt to legalize “conversion therapy,” a pseudoscientific practice that tries to make queer people straight . . . .
Efforts to protect health-care workers who want to discriminate against LGBTQ people as part of their religious beliefs are far from uncommon in state legislatures, especially those controlled by Republicans.
Sanford’s proposed legislation comes as legislators in 15 states and Washington, D.C. have banned the harmful practice of so-called conversion therapy.
Sanford is an executive pastor at Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church in Allen, Texas. Working a second job isn’t surprising for Texas legislators, who are paid $7,200 annually and are in session only in odd-numbered years for 140 days.
Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church does not have a statement of their beliefs regarding LGBTQ people on its website, but the church links to a piece criticizing bans on so-called conversion therapy for transgender kids and a podcast by Christopher Yuan, a professor at Moody Bible Institute, who believes LGBTQ people should be celibate, although he’s expressed doubt about “conversion therapy.”
Supporting “conversion therapy” isn’t new for Texas Republicans; the state GOP added the unscientific practice to its 2014 platform. Meanwhile, Texas Democrats have filed a bill to ban “conversion therapy,” although it doesn’t stand much chance in a Republican-dominated legislature.
[T]he science is clear. National and international medical organizations are unanimous in condemning the practice, including the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, and 43 more, . . . . The main dissenters are fringe groups, such as the American College of Pediatrics, which promotes anti-LGBTQ misinformation while purporting to be a reputable medical organization, according to PFLAG.
That unanimous disapproval from mainstream organizations is based firmly in science, said Megan Mooney, president-elect of the Texas Psychological Association. “This is not good therapy, this is not good treatment, [studies] have been unequivocal about that,” she told Rewire.News.
Polls indicate “conversion therapy” has little public support, although they typically ask about gays and lesbians, leaving out other orientations and transgender people. There are no polls covering Texas, but a YouGov poll indicated that majorities of people in southern states (correctly) say that so-called conversion therapy is ineffective. The same poll found that across race, class, and partisan lines, people in the United States agreed.
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