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Twenty-seven states and Washington, D.C., have banned efforts to change sexual orientation, commonly but mistakenly referred to as “conversion therapy,” for minors on the premise that therapies seeking to mitigate or resolve unwanted same-sex attraction are inherently harmful and increase the risk of suicide. Father Paul Sullins, a Roman Catholic priest, senior research associate at […]
An Illinois father’s story illustrates how policies like Rhode Island’s transgender “guidance” for schools and “conversion therapy” ban can undermine parents’ ability to help their children.
Not to go back to the well of content that is Naomi Chomsky, but this passage from an interview appearing on Liberation (“Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation”) is of note far beyond the topic of drag queen story hours:
What about media coverage of the events?
It’s been quite positive. I’ve done a lot of back and forth with the Massachusetts Family Institute. They made comments comparing drag to blackface, and called it misogynistic. But they’re fighting to restrict women’s bodies. They also are proponents of conversion therapy. I said this to everybody, and mentioned how these groups are attacking abortion rights— but none of the media printed that. They sort of softened my message a little bit, as they do.
Softened the message as they do for whom? I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a conservative, for example, complain that the media is softening his or her message — quite the opposite.
If you don’t read very broadly, across alternative media from all ideological angles, your understanding of controversies of the day is going to be very limited. And it’ll be limited in the particular way of softening the edges for the progressive pill that the mainstream news media wants our society to swallow.
The commentary of legislators supporting a ban on “conversion therapy” shows that they’re pushing an ideological agenda more than they’re trying to help actual people.
If we want to live under a government with the power to forbid children and their parents from seeing what therapeutic options might be available for unwanted feelings, I guess that’s a conversation that we can have, although I find myself on the side of the ACLU in worrying about giving legislators “wide latitude to ban unpopular medical treatments.” But if we’re going to have this conversation, we should do so with accurate information about what the bans cover, and Linda Borg’s Providence Journal article on Rhode Island’s new ban of “conversion therapy” fails on that count:
The bill makes it illegal in Rhode Island for licensed health care professionals to advertise or engage in conversion therapy for anyone under 18. It does not affect religious counselors or leaders — or adults who choose such a program.
That “does not affect” sentence is just not correct. Read this section of the law:
23-94-4. Prohibition on state funding for conversion therapy. No state funds, nor any funds belonging to a municipality, agency, or political subdivision of this state, shall be expended for the purpose of conducting conversion therapy, referring a person for conversion therapy, health benefits coverage for conversation therapy, or a grant or contract with any entity that conducts conversion therapy or refers individuals for conversion therapy.
This is separate from the section that bans “licensed professionals” from offering such therapy to minors, and it goes much farther. It covers “any entity that conducts… or refers individuals for conversion therapy.” So, while a licensed professional would only lose his or her Rhode Island license if he or she provides the therapy to minors, that professional would lose access to any state or local funds that somebody might complain subsides the therapy for for adults, as well as any “grant or contract” whatsoever, whether related to conversion therapy or not.
This would apply, as well, to any person, group, or organization that refers an adult to such a therapist. An aggressive judiciary could find within this language justification for removing tax exemption from any church that even suggests trying therapy to any church member.
This bill is your supposed representatives using your government to tell you what you must believe about the universe and your very self.
Although some of us on the right find their viewpoints intellectually incoherent, progressives do have consistent guildelines that can help one to predict what their opinions will be on particular issues. On matters of biology and sexuality, the guideline appears to be that any movement away from the attitudes and lifestyles that facilitated human society’s advancement through to the 1960s is good. Consider legislation that Steve Ahlquist promotes on RI Future:
House Bill 5277, which if passed would prohibit “conversion therapy” by licensed health care professionals with respect to children under 18 years of age was popularly supported at the House Health Education and Welfare Committee meeting Wednesday evening. Conversion therapy as defined in the bill includes any practice that “seeks or purports to impose change of an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, practices which attempt or purport to change behavioral expression of an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity or attempt or purport to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”
So, to review: Progressive legislators have submitted an extremely broad and radical bill that would prevent just about any government interference when women want to kill their babies in the womb. The Department of Education has issued regulations authorizing schools to guide students along the path of changing their genders, even if it means deceiving their parents.
And yet, progressives want to forbid people who wish to reduce or eliminate their same-sex attractions from working with professionals who might be able to help them do that. This is pure ideology, like a fundamentalist dogma with no tolerance for individual choices that stray from the accepted beliefs.
Not to play Internet psychotherapist, but one gets the impression that people who’ve made radical lifestyle choices want to use the law to prevent others from choosing differently if their doing so might imply that the radical choice is wrong. As for the progressive movement, as a movement, undermining the social structures and freedoms that empower individuals in the context of their families leaves a hurting population ripe for progressive rule.
As a little girl, Kathy Grace Duncan watched her father abuse her mother and vowed she would never be victimized like her mom. “I didn’t have the tools to realize that my dad was abusive, my mom’s a victim,” Duncan says, “so, my takeaway from that was that women were weak, women were vulnerable, and […]
Children now are inundated from a young age with messages about sexuality and gender, the founders of the CHANGED Movement say, but those messages aren’t always positive. “What [society is] doing is not allowing children to really explore their sexuality before labeling them as LGBT or Q or anything else, and suggesting that at 7 […]
The transgender movement is “a social contagion,” says Chris Elston, also known as “Billboard Chris.” Elston has drawn international attention for his work to defend children against gender identity ideology. Wearing billboards on his front and back that say things like “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers,” he travels throughout Canada and the U.S. having […]
California may be pushing the envelope in the establishment of religion, but Rhode Islanders should understand that their state government has banned “conversion.”
The legal regime making its way into Rhode Island and American law is indicative of a new secular religion being established under the government.
This is the second in a three-part series on the movement for religious freedom in the U.S. legal system today. Check out the first part about how Christians who refuse to take a COVID-19 vaccine face “medical death row” here. NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Ryan Bangert, senior vice president at the religious freedom law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, […]
Editor’s note: This is the first podcast interview in a series on transgender phenomena, science, and the potential for medical malpractice lawsuits. Studies have suggested that the number of young people who identify as transgender has exploded in recent years. While activists claim that these people are just discovering a latent truth suppressed by society, […]
In imposing transgender “guidance” on school districts, Rhode Island government proves contempt for the First Amendment.