HUFFINGTON
07.14.13
AP PHOTO/ALAN MARLER
STRAIGHT TALK
to outlaw licensed therapists from
attempting to change the sexual
orientation of minors. “These
practices have no basis in science
or medicine, and they will now be
relegated to the dustbin of quackery,” Gov. Jerry Brown of California said upon signing the bill into
the law.
It’s unclear whether that law
and similar bills proposed in New
York, New Jersey and Massachusetts will survive an expected
barrage of legal challenges. Late
last year, two conservative legal
groups filed suits claiming that
the California ban amounted to an
unconstitutional violation of parental rights, privacy and freedom
of speech. Both cases are awaiting ruling at the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals. Legal experts
say they expect the litigation process to drag on for years.
Culture warriors on both sides
have rallied around these cases,
portraying them as fundamental
to the future of gay rights on the
one hand and religious freedom
on the other. Central to the dispute is the question of whether
sexual orientation can be changed
through counseling (or prayer).
Social conservatives have long argued that homosexuality is a chosen “lifestyle” — as Newt Gingrich
put it to The Des Moines Register
when he was running for president in 2011, “people have many
ranges of choices.”
Although these views are increasingly marginal, gay-rights activists still feel that they threaten
to undermine the central premise
of the modern gay rights movement — that sexuality is as immutable as skin color, and that gay
people should be granted the same
rights and protections as any other minority group. Wayne Besen,
founder of Truth Wins Out, an
organization dedicated to fighting
conversion therapy, said the idea
that people choose to be gay “is
the foundation itself of homophobia. People in the movement get
upset and say it shouldn’t matter
whether someone chooses homo-
Alan Chambers,
who once
claimed he
“overcame
unwanted
same-sex
attraction,” was
the president
of Exodus
International, an
ex-gay Christian
organization.
Chambers later
apologized
and shut down
operations at
the organization
last month.