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President Barack Obama will call for an end to so-called “conversion therapies” for homosexual and transgender young people.
Such therapy, which is also often referred to as “reparative” therapy, is designed to stop feelings of homosexuality or non-traditional gender identification and is often offered by conservative religious groups. It is seen by many, including the American Psychiatric Association, as harmful to the subject’s mental health.
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The announcement came in the form of a statement from the president and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, posted alongside a WhiteHouse.gov petition to end such therapies. It was not accompanied by any concrete statements of policy.
The petition, which has been digitally signed nearly 121,000 times since early January, lists 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn as its inspiration. Alcorn, a transgender girl from Ohio, threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer last December, leaving behind an online suicide note in which she detailed how she had been forced to attend conversion treatment where religious therapists attempted to convert her back into a boy.
“Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let’s say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he’s held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it’s time to let that secret out,” the president’s statement read. “What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us — on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.”
Conversion therapy for minors is already illegal in California and New Jersey (where the ban was signed into law by Republican governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie), as well as in the District of Columbia. Similar legislation is pending in 18 states.
“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,” Jarrett said in her statement. “As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this Administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.”
Comments
Conversion Therapy
They tried that on me briefly in 2005. That's why I left Christianity and became Muslim. Those people were beyond bizarre. There was briefly a campaign to have them charged with murder because of all the suicides. I was nearly one of them. Several people here, were loving and kind to me and helped me to pull through.
Gwen
One of the few things I agree with
While I don't care for Obama as a president, I do whole heartedly agree with him on this.
just a sound bite
The unfortunate reality of conversion therapy is that it is an umbrella term that includes under it treatment modalities that are known to work for behavioral issues and would therefore be hard to regulate. The core at the issue is the argument if homosexuality and transsexualism is behavioral or innate. It's the age old nature vs. nurture argument that psychology has always wrestled with. Added to the fact that many who practice homosexual/transgender conversion therapy are unlicensed and doing it under the banner of so-called "religious counseling" and the field gets muddier. There isn't a politician around that is going to vote against religious based counseling, try to define what it can and cannot do, and even if they did it would be thrown out in the court system before the ink dried.
The battle to end conversion therapy will not be won on the political front. It has to be one in academia and there has been great strides to do that. It also needs to be won in pulpits and church pews. Though people view this as a "christian" issue, other religions also act severely towards LGBT members. Before we change policy, we must change hearts and that's the reality of the situation.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Obama rocks
The only people that think president Obama is no good are the bigoted,self centred,narrow minded assholes that have no right to think of themselves as members of the free world.God help America when he has run his full term,and someone else has go at the top.