Conversion Therapy Ban Introduced in U.S. Senate

A bill that would ban so-called conversion therapy nationwide has been introduced into the U.S. Senate.  Get ready for a lot of bleating by and sheets of flying spittle from Christofascists who believe that their "religious freedom" includes the right to subject their LGBT children to psychological - and sometimes physical - abuse in the form of "ex-gay" conversion therapy.  Flocking to their banner will be countless Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives only too happy to shamelessly prostitute themselves to the anti-science, anti-knowledge knuckle draggers.  These individuals are only too happy to sacrifice the lives of LGBT youth for their own short term political gain.  A piece in The Advocate looks at the bill's introduction.  Here are article highlights: 

A companion bill to the House's Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act — an effort to ban LGBT "conversion therapy" introduced last year by California congressman Ted Lieu — was introduced in the Senate on Thursday.

Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Patty Murray, of New Jersey and Washington State, respectively, are behind the Senate's version of the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act. If passed into law, the bill would consider all efforts to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity an "unfair or deceptive act or practice" under the Federal Trade Commission Act. Such efforts, sometimes called "reparative" or "ex-gay" therapy, have been denounced as ineffective and harmful by every major medical and mental health organization in the United States. 

Considering so-called reparative therapy a form of "medical malpractice," the FTC would be tasked with monitoring and ending such practices nationwide. The bill's House version would allow private citizens to file federal lawsuits against any practitioners engaging in "conversion therapy" and charging money for their services. 

The federal effort to ban "ex-gay" services follows in the wake of several states making the practice illegal, including New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and California. The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act would go further than the bans in these states by banning the practice in its entirety, where the statewide bans only prohibit licensed therapists from using the debunked practice on minors.

The damaging effects of so-called conversion therapy garnered national attention in 2014, when the suicide note of 17-year-old Ohio trans girl, Leelah Alcorn, went viral, detailing the harm she suffered under the “Christian” therapist she was sent to by her parents to “cure” her of being transgender. A petition on the government’s We the People platform calling for a nationwide ban, to be called “Leelah’s Law,” garnered more than 100,000 signatures, prompting a response from the White House where the administration expressed its “concern” over the use of the discredited treatment. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a public statement condemning the practice. 

This February, a coalition of LGBT groups filed a groundbreaking federal complaint with the FTC, alleging that practictioners of so-called conversion therapy were guilty of fraud. 

Tea Party: Boehner "Declared War"

I have a hard time feeling much sympathy for the Republican Party as it continues to suffer from the Frankenstein Monster it created when it allowed the Christofascists and the Tea Party (which is largely Christofascists repackaged under a different name) to take over much of the party's grass roots and city and county committees and caucuses across the country.  The result has been a rise of a white supremacist mind set, the open embrace of ignorance, religious extremism that threatens the concept of separation of church and state, and countless forms of bigotry.  Along with this, of course, has been a refusal to compromise and a willingness to destroy the country in a quest for ideological purity even though the ideology is insane.  In an effort to get a budget deal struck, the usually spineless John Boehner blasted the far right of the GOP.  Now the ranks of the lunatic far right are saying that Boehner has "declared war" on them.  The Hill looks at the spittle flecked rants of the Christofascists/Tea Party.  Here are highlights:

Tea Party Patriots said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has “declared war on the Tea Party” with his “smug and pretentious rant” against certain right-wing organizations.

The group made the charge in a fundraising email to supporters, seeking to win donations over the public feuding.

In the past two days, Boehner has repeatedly attacked the conservative groups that championed the October effort to defund ObamaCare and are now opposed to the recent budget deal negotiated by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

He has criticized the groups for being more interested in raising money than actually solving problems.

The letter quotes Boehner's statement that “outside groups” were “using our members and ... the American people for their own goals.”  “The last time we checked, we are the American people,” the letter said.

The letter goes on to refer to Boehner as a “ruling class politician” who only pretends to be conservative while remaining a “tax-and-spend liberal” at heart.

It castigated him for passing a “back-room budget deal which increases discretionary spending, does nothing to reform entitlements, and fully funds Obamacare.” The deal, it said, “is an out and out betrayal of the American people.”

Tea Party Patriots, founded in 2009, describes itself as “dedicated to holding tax-and-spend politicians accountable for creating America's fiscal crisis.”  The group was an early backer of the push to defund ObamaCare that led to the government shutdown in early October.

Let's be clear.  The Tea Party is nothing but a bunch of angry white racists/extremists who resent the loss of white privilege that they have long enjoyed.  Its members are irrational, callous towards others and self-centered.  Its members are not nice and decent people.