New Hampshire Senate Passes "Ex-Gay" Therapy Ban with GOP Support

Even as the Christofascists continue to wail over the Justice Department's directive to school divisions across the country concerning the rights of transgender student, the Bible thumpers suffered a defeat in New Hampshire where  the state Senate with Republican support passed a bill that bans the use of fraudulent "ex-gay" torture therapies on minors.  The "ex-gay" myth has been a favored tool of the Christofascists in making the false claim that sexual orientation is a "choice," thus eliminating any need for LGBT non-discrimination protections.  In addition, such bogus therapies have been a favored way for charlatans and shysters in "Christian ministries" to fleece the gullible of hard earned money.  The Concord Monitor looks at the action advancing the bill.  Here are highlights:

Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the state Senate reached an agreement late Thursday on a bill to ban gay conversion therapy on minors after a debate over religious freedom nearly derailed the effort.

“Who among us would want to be converted from the essence of who we are? I don’t think any of us would,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley said during debate.

Gay conversion therapy is the practice of trying to change someone’s sexuality or gender identity. Both the Senate and House have now approved a bill barring licensed counselors from engaging in the practice with anyone under age 18. The chambers passed bills including slightly different language, which means they’ll need to reach agreement before sending the legislation to Gov. Maggie Hassan’s desk.

Hassan, a Democrat, praised the Senate’s passage of the bill, saying it sends an important message to young people that they can be who they are.

The final bill says people licensed to provide counseling services under state law, from nurses to marriage counselors, can’t engage in the practice. It also includes language saying the law cannot infringe on religious freedom, intended to ease concerns that the bill would prevent priests and other religious leaders from talking to teenagers about their sexuality.

Democratic Sen. David Pierce, who is gay, made several personal appeals to his colleagues to back the ban. Pierce said he realized he was gay at age 11 and struggled to accept it. Research shows gay and lesbian teenagers are more likely to commit suicide than their peers and the risk increases if they undergo conversion therapy, Pierce said.

“I worked my way through it, but there was no person sitting next to me telling me I was sick and needed to be cured,” he said.

The American Psychological Association and other major health organizations have discredited gay conversion therapy and states are beginning to pass bans on the practice for minors. California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois and Washington, D.C., ban the practice for minors and Vermont is likely to join them. But efforts in Hawaii and Colorado failed this year.

Franklin Graham: Keep Satanic Gay People Away From Your Children

Franklin Graham, a professional Christian who would be a complete no one but for his famous - or infamous, depending on one's view of those who have made themselves wealth peddling religion -  is continuing his relentless denigration and demonizing of LGBT individuals.  In his latest message of hate, Graham is urging "Christians" to keep gays away from their children and away from their churches.  Like so many of the self-anointed "godly folk," instead of furthering the Gospel message of Christ, Graham's message is one of pure hate and judgment of others.  Right Wing Watch looks at the latest poison Graham is disseminating.  Here are highlights:

Last year, Franklin Graham joined James Dobson at an event in Colorado where the two warned against allowing gay people into churches because, according to Graham, they are representatives of "the Enemy" who wants to "devour our homes" and "devour this nation." 

On his radio program today, Dobson played excerpts from his discussion with Graham at the event, in which called for Christians to keep their kids away from gay people and to take over school boards across the nation in order to remove gay-friendly programs. 

"We have allowed the Enemy to come into our churches," Graham said. "I was talking to some Christians and they were talking about how they invited these gay children to come into their home and to come into the church and that they were wanting to influence them. And I thought to myself, they're not going to influence those kids; those kids are going to influence those parent's children."

"What happens is we think we can fight by smiling and being real nice and loving," he continued. "We have to understand who the Enemy is and what he wants to do. He wants to devour our homes. He wants to devour this nation and we have to be so careful who we let our kids hang out with. We have to be so careful who we let into the churches. You have immoral people who get into the churches and it begins to effect the others in the church and it is dangerous."

Graham then went on to lament that "homosexuality is taught to be okay" in schools and "that is why I want to get the school boards back" before insisting that he loves gays and therefore feels obligated to tell them that "you cannot stay gay and call yourself a Christian."

That eventually promoted Dobson to rail against the entire LGBT agenda by once again absurdly misunderstanding bisexuality.

"You know what the 'B' stand for?" Dobson asked. "Bisexual. That's orgies! That is lots of sex with lots of people!"

Being gay is not a choice - I know this all too well having tried to deny reality and "pray away the gay" for 37 years.  However, being and ignorance embracing, bigoted asshole like Dobson and Graham IS a choice.  Sadly, these two men - and so many other professional Christians - put shaking down the ignorant and gullible for money so as to maintain their very comfortable lives ahead of truth, honesty and treating others as Christ commanded.  The Pharisees of the New Testament are exemplary individuals compared to Graham and Dobson.

 

Fraudulent "Gay Conversion Therapy" Group to Shut Down

While the Roman Catholic Church and a host of fraudulent "ministries" run by anti-gay religious affiliated organizations continue to peddle the myth that gays can "change," after losing a consumer fraud case this past summer, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing ("JONAH") will be closing its doors permanently.  Would that similar lawsuits would be brought against similar charlatan run organizations.  One irony is that the founder of JONAH is a former felon who did prison time for securities fraud.  He went from one form of fraud to another, having discovered that money could be made by preying on religiously conflicted gays and their desperate families.  Mother Jones looks at the demise of this foul operation.  Here are article highlights:

A so-called "gay conversion therapy" group in New Jersey has agreed to permanently close its doors after losing a landmark court battle this summer.

As Mother Jones reported, a jury determined in June that Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or JONAH, had violated state consumer fraud law by claiming it could help change clients' sexual orientations from gay to straight. It was the first case in the nation to challenge conversion therapy as consumer fraud.

Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. granted a permanent injunction after both sides reached a settlement requiring JONAH to cease operations, permanently dissolve as a corporate entity, and liquidate all its assets.

"The end of JONAH signals that conversion therapy, however packaged, is fraudulent—plain and simple," David Dinielli, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement. The center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Michael Ferguson, one of the plaintiffs, added, "Gay conversion therapy stole years from my life, and nearly stole my life. My hope is that others can be spared the unneeded harm that comes from the lies the defendants and those like them spread."

Conversion therapy has been rejected by major health organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, which in 1973 removed homosexuality from the list of disorders in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Last year, a transgender teen committed suicide in Ohio after participating in conversion therapy, inspiring a campaign for a federal ban on the practice. New Jersey, California, and Washington, DC, have laws banning licensed conversion therapists from working with minors.

In a pretrial decision in February, Judge Bariso wrote, "The theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not novel—but like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it—instead is outdated and refuted."

Lunatic Franklin Graham Claims to Quit the GOP

Parasite and con-artist Franklin Graham

As crazy and extreme as the Republican Party has become, it's not crazy enough for Franklin Graham - a parasite on society in my view who makes a cushy living peddling religious lunacy and who would be a nobody but for his famous father - who has announced that his is quitting the Republican Party.  The party's unpardonable offense?  Passing a year end funding bill that provided funding for Planned Parenthood, which he compared to the Nazis.  The irony is, of course, that Graham if he had his wish would impose a Spanish Inquisition like Christian theocracy on America.  As for the 97% of Planned Parenthood's services that have nothing to do with abortion and which meet the health care needs of poor Americans, Graham has no alternate solution other than to apparently allow them to sicken and die.  Can't you feel the "Christian love"?  Here are highlights from the Washington Post on Graham's batshitery:

Evangelist Franklin Graham has announced he is abandoning the Republican Party in disgust over the move by the GOP-led Congress last week to pass a budget that Graham said was “wasteful” and provided funding for Planned Parenthood, which he compared to the Nazis.

Graham has previously said he has no faith in any political party, but his apparent renunciation of his Republican affiliation is an indication of anger on the right and the strong interest many disaffected evangelicals have shown in populist outsiders like Donald Trump.

Graham himself has expressed admiration for Trump, the surprise frontrunner in the Republican presidential field, and has voiced support for some of Trump’s more controversial positions — such as his call to ban Muslims from the U.S. — which have drawn condemnation from more mainstream evangelical leaders.

The federal government provides $528 million in funding for Planned Parenthood — about 40 percent of the organization’s annual budget — primarily through payments to Medicaid for health services for low-income Americans. Federal law prohibits funding of most abortions and Planned Parenthood separates federal taxpayer dollars from those used to provide abortions.

[T]he shooting massacre at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic late last month by a lone gunman, Robert Lewis Dear, who proclaimed himself “a warrior for the babies,” seemed to change the calculus and congressional leaders last week reached a deal that averted a shutdown and funds the government through September of next year.

The deal also funds Planned Parenthood at previous levels — a development that has enraged many on the religious right, including Graham, son of the renowned evangelist Billy Graham.

[I]n denouncing the Republican Party this week, Graham made a pitch for the prayer rallies he will hold in every state next year, starting in Iowa in January shortly before the crucial first presidential primary.  The rallies, as Graham says, aim to “challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box.”

 Blogger friend Bob Felton made the following apt comments on Graham:

So: Graham is severing ties with the Republican Party because they aren’t crazy enough, while people like Michael Hamar and I have stopped calling ourselves Republicans because they are too crazy.

With luck, millions more evangelicals will follow Graham’s lead and abandon the party, and the Republicans will go back to behaving like the educated, pragmatic, forward-looking realists they used to be.

 Amen to that!!

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Calls for End of "Ex-Gay" Therapy (SAMHSA)

As long time readers know, I am a vocal opponent to "ex-gay" therapy or "conversion therapy" and believe that the practice needs to be banned nationwide, especially for minors.  While I never underwent formal "ex-gay" therapy myself, for many, many years I tried to "pray away the Gay" and try to change my attractions.  I never changed, but I was filled with self-hate and self-loathing and believed that it was my fault that I did not "change."  The result? Years of inner unhappiness and constant thoughts of suicide.  Nowadays, all legitimate medical and mental health associations condemn "ex-gay" therapy and hold that it does not work and has the potential for great harm.  The take away? Those who push or engage in administering "ex-gay" therapy are delusional, charlatans or both.  Now, the  Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has upped the stakes and called for a nationwide ban of "ex-gay" therapy.  Here are highlights from the Administration's press release:

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is releasing “Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth,” a comprehensive report that provides an in-depth review of research and clinical expertise related to conversion therapy.  This important new resource makes it clear that conversion therapy is not an appropriate therapeutic approach based on the evidence, and explores alternative ways to discuss sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression with young people.

This report includes the first publication of consensus statements developed by an expert panel held by the American Psychological Association in July 2015.  The expert panel included researchers and practitioners in child and adolescent mental health with a strong background in gender development, gender identity, and sexual orientation in children and adolescents.  Experts with a background in family therapy, ethics, and the psychology of religion also participated.

Through a collaborative process, this panel found that variations in sexual orientation and gender identity are normal, and that conversion therapies or other efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity are not effective, are harmful, and are not appropriate therapeutic practices.  The report provides an overview of existing efforts to eliminate the practice of conversion therapy.

The information and resources contained within the report include a review of the research in this area, detailed information on supportive therapeutic approaches, areas of opportunity for future research, existing strategies to end the practice of conversion therapy, and targeted guidance for various audiences.

These materials help providers, families, and care-givers support their LGBTQ and gender non-conforming children and adolescents.  They also illuminate practices that may contribute to the health disparities facing LGBTQ youth, which should be avoided.

The full report can be found here.  Here are a few important findings:

[C]onversion therapy—efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression —is a practice that is not supported by credible evidence and has been disavowed by behavioral health experts and associations. Conversion therapy perpetuates outdated views of gender roles and identities as well as the negative stereotype that being a sexual or gender minority or identifying as LGBTQ is an abnormal aspect of human development. Most importantly, it may put young people at risk of serious harm.

Eliminating the practice of conversion therapy with sexual and gender minority minors is an important step, but it will not alleviate the myriad of stressors they experience as a result of interpersonal, institutional, and societal bias and discrimination against sexual and gender minorities.

Interventions aimed at a fixed outcome, such as gender conformity or heterosexual orientation, including those aimed at changing gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation are coercive, can be harmful, and should not be part of behavioral health treatments. 

The ban needs to be nationwide and there need to be NO exceptions for quack religious based "ministries."  I would go even farther and advocate that submitting one's child to "ex-gay" therapy should be grounds for the termination of parental rights.  There should be no exceptions and no undeserved deference to "deeply held religious belief."   

Gay Conversion Therapy - Modern-Day "Snake Oil”

Plaintiffs

One of the most prevalent traits of today's conservative Christians is their patent dishonesty.  Anything that promotes their theocratic agenda is seemingly acceptable, including spreading deliberate lies and derogatory talking points and trashing anyone who does not conform to their hate and fear based religious beliefs.  Nowhere do we see this more than in the never ending attacks on gays and transgender individuals who by their very existence seem to threaten the house of cards belief system of the "godly folks."  I don't want to beat to death the ongoing trial in New Jersey where an "ex-gay" ministry is being sued for consumer fraud, but the trial is truly significant because of the scrutiny it is bringing on the totally discredited "ex-gay conversion" industry.  

These fraudulent ministries inflict so much harm and harm so many lives that they truly need to be shut down on a nationwide basis.  Yes, this is very personal to me.  Although I never was directly subjected to  "ex-gay" conversion therapy, I tried every way I could find to make myself straight and to "pray away the gay."  The experience was harmful and destructive and caused so much self-hate and so many thoughts of suicide.  At least in my case, no one was pocketing a lot of money while subjecting me to a form of torture.  The Atlantic looks at the bogus nature of such "ministries."  Here are highlights:

For 17-year-old Chaim Levin, despair came in the form of a persistent attraction to men—largely because his Orthodox Jewish community rejected homosexuality. After Levin confided to a friend that he was not interested in women, he says he was thrown out of his religious school.

Levin and his family hoped an organization called JONAH, or Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, could help him become straight. JONAH referred him to an unlicensed life coach named Alan Downing, who began treating him in weekly group and individual therapy sessions beginning in 2007 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

For one session that reportedly cost $100, Downing asked Levin to stand in front of a full-length mirror. According to court documents, Downing told Levin to say a negative thing about himself and remove an article of clothing with each criticism. When he was fully naked, Levin alleges that Downing told him to touch his penis and his buttocks. Eventually, Downing said “good,” and the session ended. Downing allegedly tried similar nudity-based methods on other JONAH clients. 

Now Levin and two  other young men who also underwent JONAH-affiliated treatment are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the organization. The case is being brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama-based civil-rights group, which is arguing that JONAH-style treatment—and other “gay conversion therapies” like it—amount to consumer fraud. Quite simply, the SPLC argues, conversion therapy doesn’t work. People can’t become ex-gay, and making promises to the contrary is a false bill of goods.

“These were very young men,” SPLC senior staff attorney Sam Wolfe told me. “They were from communities where they didn't know gay people, and they didn't know that much about it.”

New Jersey’s “Consumer Fraud Act protects people from lies or misleading statements,” Wolfe added. “It doesn't matter if our clients voluntarily signed up ... it was like candy to them, so of course they wanted to sign up for it. They believed and trusted the words and promises of the defendants, which turned out to be false. The defendants sold them modern-day snake oil.”

Three states, Oregon, California, and New Jersey, as well as Washington D.C., have already banned the practice for minors. Ultimately, the SPLC hopes a court victory will herald the end of ex-gay therapies nationwide. Last month, Congressman Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, introduced a bill to ban reparative therapy at the federal level. A map created by SPLC currently lists some 70 organizations across 20 states that practice conversion therapy in some form.

What mainstream experts agree on, though, is that homosexuality is perfectly normal. (Indeed, a New Jersey Superior Court judge has already granted the SPLC one victory, ruling that it is fraudulent to say that homosexuality is a disorder.)

“People's sexual orientation is something that they feel is a very central part of their being,” said Gregory Herek, a psychology professor at the University of California in Davis. “When you have the idea of people trying to change it in therapy, it's attempting to change something that's a very core part of the person.”

“Enduring change to an individual’s sexual orientation is uncommon,” the American Psychological Association wrote in a 2009 report on the topic after reviewing studies on the effectiveness of conversion therapies. “The participants in this body of research continued to experience same-sex attractions following [sexual-orientation change efforts]. Compelling evidence of decreased same-sex sexual behavior ... was rare.”

The SPLC complaint, meanwhile, alleges that the JONAH co-founder Arthur Goldberg told one of the plaintiffs, Benjamin Unger, that “change is absolutely possible,” and that Unger could essentially stop being gay within two to four years.

People who seek out conversion therapy often do it because of extreme stigma in their communities, and not because of some intrinsic desire to be straight. The problem is the discrimination, not the sexuality.

Nut Case Pat Robertson: The Gays Are Recruiting Youth

I keep wondering when Pat Robertson's sons are going to force him into retirement.  His outbursts of verbal diarrhea seem to be getting worse with each passing month and not only does he make himself looks like an utter fool, but he is an huge embarrassment to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.  In his latest delusional rant, Robertson went on a tirade claiming that gays are recruiting young people.  If Robertson would get his head out of his ass and pay any attention to modern knowledge and science, he know that no one recruits you into being gay.  You are born that way. Period, end of story.  If any recruitment is going on its by the Christofascists who try to get gays to pretend that they are "ex-gay'" and do untold damage to gays and their straight spouses in the process.  The Advocate looks at Robertson's latest pile of bullshit.  Here are highlights:

Pat Robertson yesterday took advantage of a 700 Club viewer’s concerns about her son’s questionable relationship to rant about gay men supposedly recruiting young people into homosexuality.

The viewer, identified as Nancy, said her son, who lives with her, is involved with a married man who goes to their church. The man’s wife, she said, knows nothing of the relationship. “What would the Lord want me to do?” the viewer asked.

The homophobic televangelist immediately called the married man a “pedophile,” although Nancy did not specify her son’s age. He also questioned the son’s identity. “Her son right now doesn’t know what he wants and he doesn’t know whether he’s a homosexual or not a homosexual, but this guy is trying to talk him into that,” he said. “There’s so many people, young people, impressionable, some coach comes after them, some adult comes after them, some older sibling comes after them, and they somehow think, ‘Because they did this I must be gay.’ Well, he doesn’t know that for sure, he doesn’t know what sexual identity he’s got.”

Robertson needs to be placed in a mental ward.   Virginia Beach will never be taken seriously as a city as long as Robertson and CBN continue to spew batshitery.

White House Supports Efforts to Ban "Ex-Gay" Therapy

The Obama White House has given Christofascists and homophobes another reason to hate this president:  in response to a petition to a petition submitted to the White House, the Obama administration has announced that it supports efforts to ban "ex-gay" or "conversion" therapy, a form of voodoo like therapy that needs to be banned nationwide.  Despite being condemned by every legitimate medical and mental health association in America, because of the ridiculous and undeserved deference give to so-called "religious belief" quacks and charlatans continue to be ale to inflict this poisonous, psychological - and sometimes physical abuse - on minors in all but a handful of states in America.   Here are highlights from the White House response:

The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm.

As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this Administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.

The medical and mental health communities have long made clear that they reject the practice of conversion therapy, aimed at “changing” one’s sexual orientation. Recently, efforts to change an individual’s gender identity have also been shown in countless instances to have dangerous effects. More than 40 years ago, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder, and in 1998 released a statement “[opposing] any psychiatric treatment, such as ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy.” It asserted that “such directed efforts are against fundamental principles of psychoanalytic treatment and often result in substantial psychological pain by reinforcing damaging internalized attitudes.”[2]

Similarly, the American Psychological Association has repeatedly affirmed its stance against these practices, recently stating that efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation can pose serious health risks to LGBTQ+ individuals. Numerous other accredited medical and mental health organizations have echoed this sentiment, including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Counseling Association.

As part of their duty to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens, several states have taken their own steps to protect minors from the potentially dangerous effects of conversion therapy. California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have all banned licensed professionals from using conversion therapy on minors. Since last year, lawmakers in 18 other states have introduced similar legislation.

In a 2013 signing statement for his state’s legislative ban, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie expressed that “exposing children to these health risks without clear evidence of the benefits that outweigh these serious risks is not appropriate.”[3] In February 2015, a New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled that advertising a service that could change a person’s sexuality is fraudulent and violates the state’s consumer protection laws.

While a national ban would require congressional action, we are hopeful that the clarity of the evidence combined with the actions taken by these states will lead to broader action that this Administration would support.

Submitting minors to "ex-gay" therapy is child abuse plain and simple.  Parents that force their children into such bogus therapy need to permanently lose custody of their children.  "Conversion" therapy needs to be seen to be no different than depriving a child of life saving medical treatment.  Parents that place their children in such programs need to be criminally prosecuted for child abuse.

Republicans Cranking Up for 2016:Courting Charlatans and Cranks

One of my memories of growing up in a Republican family in upstate New York was seeing photos of my father in the newspaper with then Governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller.  My dad was at the time involved in Republican politics and as I recall served on a local GOP committee.  Those days are long gone and my Republican parents and ancestors must be spinning in their graves over what the GOP has become.  As for those of us still living, almost without exception, we have fled the insane asylum that today's GOP has become.  Sane moderates who value knowledge and science are as few in today's GOP as living breathing dinosaurs.  In there place one finds white supremacists, religious fanatics, and those who still cling to supply side economics fueled by tax cuts.  The result is that anyone seeking the GOP presidential nomination must prostitute them self to racists and extremists and continue to pretend in Reagan economics despite decades of tangible proof that the economic model doesn't work.  A column in the New York Times looks at the never ending self-prostitution of GOP candidates.  Here are highlights:

Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, is said to be a rising contender for the Republican presidential nomination. So, on Wednesday, he did what, these days, any ambitious Republican must, and pledged allegiance to charlatans and cranks.

For those unfamiliar with the phrase, “charlatans and cranks” is associated with N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor at Harvard who served for a time as George W. Bush’s chief economic adviser. In the first edition of his best-selling economics textbook, Mr. Mankiw used those words to ridicule “supply-siders” who promised that tax cuts would have such magic effects on the economy that deficits would go down, not up.

Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, attended a similar event last month. Clearly, to be a Republican contender you have to court the powerful charlatan caucus.

So a doctrine that even Republican economists consider dangerous nonsense has become party orthodoxy. And what makes this political triumph especially remarkable is that it comes just as the doctrine’s high priests have been setting new standards for utter, epic predictive failure.

[T]he people Mr. Walker was courting have spent years warning about the wrong things. “Get ready for inflation and higher interest rates” was the title of a June 2009 op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Laffer; what followed were the lowest inflation in two generations and the lowest interest rates in history. Mr. Kudlow and Mr. Moore both predicted 1970s-style stagflation.To be fair, Mr. Kudlow and Mr. Laffer eventually admitted that they had been wrong. Neither has, however, given any indication of reconsidering his views . . . 

So what does it say about the current state of the G.O.P. that discussion of economic policy is now monopolized by people who have been wrong about everything, have learned nothing from the experience, and can’t even get their numbers straight?

The answer, I’d suggest, runs deeper than economic doctrine. Across the board, the modern American right seems to have abandoned the idea that there is an objective reality out there, even if it’s not what your prejudices say should be happening. What are you going to believe, right-wing doctrine or your own lying eyes? These days, the doctrine wins.

Look at another issue, health reform. Before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, conservatives predicted disaster: health costs would soar, the deficit would explode, more people would lose insurance than gain it. They were wrong on all counts.

Along with this denial of reality comes an absence of personal accountability. If anything, alleged experts seem to get points by showing that they’re willing to keep saying the same things no matter how embarrassingly wrong they’ve been in the past.

But let’s go back to those economic charlatans and cranks: Clearly, failure has only made them stronger, and now they are political kingmakers. Be very, very afraid.

District of Columbia Bans "Ex-Gay" Therapy

The Christofascists have lost another battle in their war to perpetuate the myth that sexual orientation is a "choice" and that gays can "change" their sexuality - claims that are condemned by every legitimate medical and mental health association in America.  The truth and the findings of medical/mental health experts mean nothing, of course, to the "godly folk.  If you want some insights on just how bogus "ex-gay" therapy is, check out this piece at Queerty that looks at an undercover effort to expose "ex-gay" charlatans.   But back to the developments in the District of Columbia.  Here are excerpts from a press release from the National Center for Lesbian Rights:

Today, the District of Columbia Council unanimously approved a bill that will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy.

When signed into law, Washington, D.C. will become the third jurisdiction—behind California and New Jersey—to pass legislation protecting LGBT youth from practices that are known to cause severe depression and even suicide.

“Today, the DC Council sent a powerful message to LGBT youth and their families that they are accepted, supported, and loved,” said Samantha Ames, NCLR staff attorney and coordinator of the #BornPerfect campaign at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). “The Council has used its authority to protect our most vulnerable youth from dangerous and discredited pseudoscience that tells them who they are is wrong, and reaffirmed the consensus of every major medical and mental health organization that all children are born perfect, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

NCLR, in conjunction with other organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, played a key role in organizing the coalition behind the bill, which was authored by Councilmember Mary M. Cheh. A broad range of groups supported the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, including national LGBT organizations, mental health organizations, faith leaders, youth advocates, reproductive justice groups, and civil rights organizations.

The reality is that "ex-gay" therapy needs to be banned nationwide with no exemption for religious "ministries."  At the same time, we need more victims of these programs to come forward and file lawsuits against these therapists and organizations on the basis of the intentional infliction of emotional harm, negligence and fraudulent advertising.  With a fee successful lawsuits, insurance carriers would drop coverage of "Christian counseling" clinics (Think "Ladybird" Bachmann), churches and other organizations   that peddle these fraudulent "therapies."

Linda Harvey: Today's Face of Hate

The "godly Christians" always claim that they are loving and love everyone even as their words and actions tell a very different story.  Time and time again the take away is that these people hate nearly everyone - or at least everyone who isn't a white, heterosexual conservative Christian.  With their losses mounting in the culture wars these folks are becoming more and more shrill as they see their influence dwindling and, perhaps more importantly, their ability to prey on the ignorant and gullible becoming more difficult which represents a direct threat to their livelihood.  Jeremy Hooper looks at the vitriol being spewed by hate group leader Linda Harvey who never seems to have enough foul things to say about gays:

It's very interesting to watch the anti-LGBT activists process their crushing losses and impending political irrelevancy. Some are in deep denial. Some are viciously angry. Some are scheming whatever minor way they can chip away at progress, hoping to at least stay in business for a few more years. 

Others have moved away from trying to save us from ourselves and are now moving on to "protecting the innocent" from the "wolves" 

We may be moving from a time where our biggest challenge was to witness to homosexuals, into a time where our biggest task is to protect the innocent from them. There are exceptions, of course, and I count on all my fellow believers to have the discernment to recognize those opportunities. But what greatly grieves me is that so few see the need for protection that is clearly before us. Too often the approach is to have no fear as we toss our children out in the world with no defense.

Well, the wolves are ready for them. Let’s hope there’s still time to pull them back inside before it’s too late.

—Anti-LGBT activist Linda Harvey, who has coupled this revelation with her twelve reasons why LGBT people are terrible

The real wolves are the shysters like Harvey who have zero legitimate credentials to back up their claimed expertise and use claimed religiosity the shakedown the gullible for money.  Harvey hasn't worked a real job in years and is in actuality little better than a leech on society.

Michigan's Final Witness Says Gays Are Going to Hell

If there was any question of whether or not economist Douglas Allen - the final supposed expert witness for the State of Michigan in the pending federal court case challenging Michigan's ban on same sex marriage - is anti-gay, Allen made his view perfectly clear that he believes gays are going to Hell.  Hopefully, the court will see Allen for what he is and disregard his testimony which like that of Mark Regnerus is based on religious belief rather than legitimate study.  When one knows the conclusions one wants to reach, it is easy to manipulate data to reach the preordained conclusion.  It's been the Christofascist approach to "research" for decades.  Here are highlights from the Detroit Free Press:

Michigan’s gay marriage trial ended on an explosive note today, with the state’s final witness saying he believes unrepentant homosexuals are going to hell.

His views emerged following a question from plaintiffs attorney Ken Mogill, who is fighting to overturn Michigan’s ban on gay marriage.

“Is it accurate that you believe the consequence of engaging in homosexual acts is a separation from God and eternal damnation?” Mogill asked the state’s expert, then added, “in other words, they’re going to hell?”

“Without repentance, yes,” answered the expert, Canadian economist Douglas Allen, the last witness to testify on behalf of the state in a trial that could make Michigan the 18th state to legalize gay marriage.

Allen, who has testified in three other same-sex marriage trials, was the last witness to testify in the nine-day-long trial in which two lesbian nurses are seeking to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage. The state is fighting to uphold the ban, arguing voters have already spoken on this issue and that their decision should stand.

But the plaintiffs argue the ban is unconstitutional and are fighting to reverse it so that they can marry and adopt each other’s children.

The trial has focused largely on the outcomes of children raised in same-sex families. The state has argued that children thrive best when raised by married moms and dads. The plaintiffs have countered that there is no evidence to show that children raised in same-sex households fare better or worse than those raised by heterosexuals.

For the last week, the plaintiffs have tried to attack the credibility of the state’s witnesses by pointing out their religious views and getting them to admit their views on gay marriage. All four of the state’s witnesses said they believed Michigan should refrain from reversing its ban and said their research was based on numbers, not views.  Closing arguments are set for Friday at 10 a.m.

Like each of the other federal court cases considering state same sex marriage bans, Michigan's defense ultimately comes down to testimony of fraudulent researchers who display open religious based animus towards gays and claims that mob majority rule should determine the rights of minorities.   As for Hell, if it exists, in my view it is Allen, Regnerus and those like them who will be inhabiting it.  A piece that rips Allen's views apart and describes his "research" as worthless can be found here.

NOM: "Ex-Gay" Therapy "Helps" Gay People

One does have to wonder what mind altering drugs the folks at the National Organization for Marriage ("NOM") are gulping down.  In a recent post the always bovine Maggie Gallagher insists that ex-gay therapy offers “help” to gay people, and says that ex-gay therapy should not be banned in New Jersey or elsewhere and that "therapists" should not be sued for pushing this toxic snake oil on the ignorant or religiously brainwashed.   Under Gallagher's upside down world, antisemitism and the KKK "help" Jews and blacks.  The one who needs therapy is Gallagher who still hasn't recovered from getting pregnant in college and then being dumped by her boyfriend.  The woman is disgusting.  Here are highlights from Think Progress:

National Organization for Marriage co-founder Maggie Gallagher made it quite clear today that she believes ex-gay therapy offers “help” to gay people. She published a brief post at the National Review supporting lawyer Chuck Liamndri, who is defending the Jewish ex-gay group JONAH from a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Chuck Limandri, my old friend from the Carrie Prejean, Prop 8 fights, is a heckuva a lawyer and one brave man. He’s taking on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s massive legal machine to defend the right of Jewish gay people to seek help.

SPLC is using consumer-fraud laws to try to bankrupt these small nonprofits and if it wins this case has announced plans to take it nationwide against 70 groups offering some form of sexual-orientation-change efforts. They must not want publicity because this landmark case is flying under all media radar screens.

Jeremy Hooper points out that this isn’t surprising, because Gallagher has made plenty of similar comments in the past. In particular, she believes that gay people “construct” their identities, convincing themselves they were born that way just because it’s “quite painful to come to terms with being gay.”

There’s nothing “brave” about defending harmful, ineffective ex-gay therapy, and even those working under the façade of a “nonprofit” are still making their living off of shaming people by reinforcing their internalized homophobia. If Gallagher believes the case needs more publicity, perhaps it’s worth revisiting the details of the case. Here is what the ex-gay survivors represented by the suit were instructed to do during their treatment with JONAH therapists:

• Remove all clothing during both individual and group therapy sessions and hold penis in front of therapist.
• Cuddle and intimately hold others of the same-sex including between young clients and older counselors.
• Violently beat an effigy of the client’s mother with a tennis racket.
• Go to the gym more as well as bath houses in order to be nude with father figures.
• Be subjected to ridicule as “faggots” and “homos” in mock locker room and gym class scenarios.

Perhaps Gallagher should clarify how this kind of humiliation and degradation “helps” gay people.

What makes Gallagher even more foul is that she has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year peddling anti-gay venom and pushing to deprive gays of equality under the civil laws.  A tawdry whore has more virtue.

Bill To Ban "Ex-Gay" Reparative Therapy Introduced In New York Senate

First it was California (where the Christofascists are challenging the now enacted law  law), then it was New Jersey where legislation is pending, and now New York State where a bill has been introduced in the New York Senate that would shut down the use of fraudulent "ex-gay" therapy on minors.  No doubt the Christofascists and charlatans of the "ex-gay" ministries will be screeching and shrieking that there "religious liberty" is being threatened.   But the truth is that laws exist that bar parents from inflicting harm on their children based on false religious beliefs - e.g., court ordered blood transfusion over parental objections, etc.  "Ex-gay" or conversion or reparative therapy id no different and needs to be banned.  Here are highlights from a piece in Huffington Post:

 The fight against a controversial therapy that purports to "cure" gay people of their gayness and make them straight has come to New York.

The therapy has been around for decades, but has come under increased scrutiny in the last few years as gay rights supporters have argued it doesn't work and may cause great harm to those who undergo it. Over the past several years, the entire mainstream mental health community has renounced it, and politicians in several states have taken steps to restrict it.

New York's legislation, which will be introduced on Friday, is modeled after a new California law that bans licensed therapists from using the practice, sometimes called conversion therapy or sexual orientation change efforts, on minors. California's bill, the first of its kind, was signed into law last fall and is currently on hold while a federal appeals court considers two lawsuits alleging an unconstitutional violation of free speech and parental rights. 

Despite the unresolved legal challenge, two New York state lawmakers from New York City, Sen. Michael Gianaris and Sen. Deborah Glick, both progressive Democrats, said the time was right to propose a ban.

Glick's interest in the ban grew out of her work with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, who make up more than 40 percent of the young homeless population in America. "You start to hear the same stories over and over again," she told The Huffington Post on Thursday. "'They tried to make me straight and they took me to ...,' or, 'I couldn't become -- and so they threw me out,'" she continued, listing some of the issues she has encountered in her work with this population.

Opponents of the California law have argued that it attacks free speech, unconstitutionally regulates what therapists and patients can say to each other, and infringes on parents' authority to seek whatever type of professional help they choose for their children. 

"If you really want to educate the public about the risks of these treatments, the fact that there are states that have outlawed these treatments should be a chilling fact," said Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York City based psychiatrist known for his work on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Drescher is a member of the the American Psychiatric Association, a professional group that has joined other major professional health associations in America in concluding that these therapy efforts have never been proven to work and may harm young patients.

"Its symbolic of the overall debate, and what underlies the belief of those who support this kind of therapy is that there is something wrong with being gay or lesbian," Gianaris said on Thursday. Gianaris said he was moved to introduce the legislation after he read about the bill in California, and saw an opportunity for New York to take the lead.

"We're in the middle of a great cultural battle over sexual orientation right now," Gianaris continued. "And it's important that as we're securing victories in the marriage fights that we don't let attacks on our gay and lesbian youth occur in other forms." 

Children are not the property of parents and just because parents suffer from religious based delusions and prejudices should not mean that they are free to subject their children to what in my view amounts to criminal child abuse.   Many fraudulent and deceptive practices are outlawed and conversion therapy needs to be added to that list of prohibited practices.  The shrieks of the Christofascists is really based on their knowledge that once the public becomes convinced that sexual orient cannot be changed as claimed, then the Christofascists will have lost their war against LGBT individuals.

Former Ex-Gay Spokesman Issues Formal Apology

 In addition to the gay marriage defeats in France and Rhode Island, the Christofascists have another reason to be depressed: John Paulk, perhaps the most high profile "ex-gay" has issued a formal apology for his "ex-gay" activities and has admitted that despite previous claims, his sexual orientation never changed as advertised.  Box Turtle Bulletin looks at Paulk's more detailed apology in follow up to his initial recantation last week.  Here are highlights:

John Paulk, the former ex-gay leader who last week recanted his earlier beliefs in the ex-gay movement’s message that change in sexual orientation was both possible and necessary, has followed up with a more full, formal apology for the damage those messages caused:

For the better part of ten years, I was an advocate and spokesman for what’s known as the “ex-gay movement,” where we declared that sexual orientation could be changed through a close-knit relationship with God, intensive therapy and strong determination. At the time, I truly believed that it would happen. And while many things in my life did change as a Christian, my sexual orientation did not.

 So in 2003, I left the public ministry and gave up my role as a spokesman for the “ex-gay movement.” I began a new journey. In the decade since, my beliefs have changed. Today, I do not consider myself “ex-gay” and I no longer support or promote the movement. Please allow me to be clear: I do not believe that reparative therapy changes sexual orientation; in fact, it does great harm to many people.

I know that countless people were harmed by things I said and did in the past, Parents, families, and their loved ones were negatively impacted by the notion of reparative therapy and the message of change. I am truly, truly sorry for the pain I have caused.

From the bottom of my heart I wish I could take back my words and actions that caused anger, depression, guilt and hopelessness. In their place I want to extend love, hope, tenderness, joy and the truth that gay people are loved by God.

Finally, I know there are still accounts of my “ex-gay” testimony out there being publicized by various groups, including two books that I wrote about my journey. I don’t get any royalties from these publications, and haven’t since I left the ministry nearly ten years ago. I discourage anyone from purchasing and selling these books or promoting my “ex-gay” story because they do not reflect who I am now or what I believe today. 



John Paulk

To understand the significance of this statement, it’s important to review how deeply embedded Paulk had been, not just in the ex-gay movement in particular, but as an important spokesman for anti-gay activists broadly. Paulk first became active in the early 1990s when he appeared in the infamous 1992 video, The Gay Agenda, which was produced by the Family Research Council. .   .  .  .  In 1993, Paulk appeared in another video, Gay Rights Special Rights, which proved highly influential as it made the rounds on Capitol Hill during the debates about gays in the military which eventually led to the  ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on gays serving openly.

By the late 1990s, Paulk became a principle spokesman for Focus On the Family on anti-gay issues. He headed Focus’s Gender and Homosexuality division and was elected to two terms as chairman of the most prominent ex-gay organization, Exodus International. In 1998, he helped to found Love Won Out, a traveling ex-gay roadshow and infomercial conducted jointly with Exodus International, which was staged in a half a dozen cities across North American each year for the next thirteen years. That same year, he and his ex-lesbian wife, Anne, again became the face of the ex-gay movement in a massive publicity campaign that culminated in their landing on the cover of Newsweek. 

Make no mistake.  Paulk's apology is a major defeat for the anti-gay industry and the charlatans - like Michele Bachmann's husband - who continue to peddle the "ex-gay" myth in order to enrich themselves are play politics with he lives and rights of LGBT Americans.

Romney's Sham Plan for Prosperity

Let's be honest.  Over the last 18+ months, Mitt Romney has shown himself to be a constant flip flopper - or shape shifter as some have begun to describe him.   And his plan for the future of the country? Vague statements that seem to support all kinds of spending yet a tax plan that would have to create a new form of math to make the numbers remotely balance.  All of this will supposedly lead the nation to renewed "prosperity."  Perhaps for some, but not for most of us.  Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has a column in today's New York Times that looks at the sham Romeny/Ryan economic plan.  Here are excerpts:

Mitt Romney has been barnstorming the country, telling voters that he has a five-point plan to restore prosperity. And some voters, alas, seem to believe what he’s saying. So President Obama has now responded with his own plan, a little blue booklet containing 27 policy proposals. How do these two plans stack up?

Well, as I’ve said before, Mr. Romney’s “plan” is a sham. It’s a list of things he claims will happen, with no description of the policies he would follow to make those things happen. “We will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget,” he declares, but he refuses to specify which tax loopholes he would close to offset his $5 trillion in tax cuts

Mr. Romney is faking it. His real plan seems to be to foster economic recovery through magic, inspiring business confidence through his personal awesomeness. But what about the man he wants to kick out of the White House? 

Well, Mr. Obama’s booklet comes a lot closer to being an actual plan. Where Mr. Romney says he’ll achieve energy independence, never mind how, Mr. Obama calls for concrete steps like raising fuel efficiency standards. Mr. Romney says, “We will give our fellow citizens the skills they need,” but says nothing about how he’ll make that happen, pivoting instead to a veiled endorsement of school vouchers; Mr. Obama calls for specific things like a program to recruit math and science teachers and partnerships between businesses and community colleges. 

It’s disappointing, to be sure. But a slow job is better than a snow job. Mr. Obama may not be as bold as we’d like, but he isn’t actively misleading voters the way Mr. Romney is. Furthermore, if we ask what Mr. Romney would probably do in practice, including sharp cuts in programs that aid the less well-off and the imposition of hard-money orthodoxy on the Federal Reserve, it looks like a program that might well derail the recovery and send us back into recession. 

And you should never forget the broader policy context. Mr. Obama may not have an exciting economic plan, but, if he is re-elected, he will get to implement a health reform that is the biggest improvement in America’s safety net since Medicare. Mr. Romney doesn’t have an economic plan at all, but he is determined not just to repeal Obamacare but to impose savage cuts in Medicaid. So never mind all those bullet points. Think instead about the 45 million Americans who either will or won’t receive essential health care, depending on who wins on Nov. 6.

The question remains ultimately whether or not a majority of voters are uninformed enough - or stupid enough - to believe Romney's deliberate lies.