Supreme Court Upholds New Jersey's Ban On Helping People Overcome Unwanted Same Sex Attraction

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday a challenge to New Jersey’s law blocking minors from receiving so-called gay-conversion therapy.

The justices did not comment on their order, which followed similar action last year leaving California’s therapy ban in place.

Therapists and supporters of sexual-orientation change efforts, represented by Mat Staver and Liberty Counsel, had asked for review of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling upholding the 2013 law signed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

New Jersey lawmakers passed the law out of concern that therapy that tries to change sexual orientation would be harmful to minors and would encourage despair and feelings of rejection.

Here are examples of some of the things they want to ban for being "harmful" !

“Then modern Orthodox high schools were sending their kids to a conversion therapy program. The school psychologist would try to change them from being gay to straight. Their methods included having the kid repeating the verse in the Bible over and over again for 45 minutes. Looking at pictures of AIDS victims and colorectal cancer victims and say ‘this is what comes of homosexual sex.’ Kids were being traumatized. We haven’t heard that lately. Now the complaints kids have is that they don’t hear anybody from the administration using the word ‘gay’, and worry about what would happen if they come out. "Orthodox" high schools are starting to think proactively about it,” says Levovitz. “We’re heading in the "right" direction.”

(Haaretz)

Mental health associations reject sexual-orientation change efforts after great lobbying, and gay-rights advocates decry the therapy as unscientific and detrimental to people. The #BornPerfect campaign by the National Center for Lesbian Rights wants to see therapy bans nationwide. 

However, therapists who offer the therapy as well as families and youth, say they want the freedom to pursue the therapy.

The 3rd Circuit court challenge, filed by a therapist who is a former lesbian and other therapy supporters, said the therapy benefits youth and others who are confused about their sexuality after being sexually molested. They also say the laws illegally invade the constitutional rights of people to seek the counseling they want.

The case, King v. Governor of New Jersey, 14-672, also noted the paradox of blocking therapy that addresses a person’s unwanted sexual orientation, but permitting therapy that addresses a person’s desire to change their unwanted biological gender.

Both a federal court and the 3rd Circuit panel upheld the New Jersey law, saying it did not violate the free speech or religious rights of people. 

The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and the American Association of Christian Counselors joined therapists Tara King and Ronald Newman in seeking Supreme Court review.

Garden State Equality, a prominent New Jersey gay rights organization, stood with Mr. Christie in favor of the law.

The District of Columbia joins California and New Jersey in banning the therapy for minors.(washington times) highlights our additions

Read why gays want to ban therapy (it's not because its really harmful like they falsely claim)

Should conversion therapy for gay youths be banned?

Dr. Michael Friedman explains what you need to know about this "harmful" practice.

President Obama called for an end to conversion therapy for LGBT youths on Wednesday at the beginning of April. Though he did not  call for a federal law banning the practice, he did make a statement through his adviser Valerie Jarrett that conversion therapy is " neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm."

We talked to Dr. Michael Friedman, Ph.D ., about how conversion therapy is administered and what President Obama's statement means for LGBT youths.

Can you tell me more about conversion therapy?

Everything about gay conversion therapy is based on a false premise. It starts off with the "false" premise that there’s something wrong with being gay, bi or trans and that’s probably the most powerful message of this treatment. There was a time where being gay was considered a mental disorder and this was decades ago, but that premise that there’s something wrong with LGBT is false. There’s no evidence that there’s anything wrong with being LGBT – there’s no psychological or medical problem. (see chart from the CDC rebuttal)

Gays (MSM) Clearly have a much higher HIV Rates

Secondly, there’s no evidence that sexuality is a choice or something that can be changed except tons of people who say they no longer are attracted to members of the same sex. And the third false is most profound: There’s absolutely no evidence that this works. There’s none that’s been presented in front of respected research institutions – it would be rejected by most ethics boards before they even read it, and examine the evidence.

There are false premises and a false promise. Everything about this approach is based on a lie. What is true, though, is that this approach – both the philosophy and practice – is something that is very much akin to other forms of discrimination and bullying that LGBT people face. They’re showing that there’s something wrong with being LGBT and that it’s a choice. These are all different aspects of discrimination. It’s basically bullying masquerading as medical practice.

There are parents and medical organizations and other organizations that support this kind of treatment that are all basically doing to children what everyday schoolyard bullies do to make them feel bad about being LGBT and in some cases, subjecting them to horrible things.

So we’ve talked about the premise – what is the practice?

It can vary. Historically there was a premise that there’s a problem – it’s one of the common psychoanalytic theories – that a gay person had an overbearing mother and distant father. If that were the case, everybody would be gay. So there were theories that hadn’t been proven. people molested are more likely to become gay in the future so that shows that homosexuality is not innate!

They’d use psychoanalytic therapy to uncover the conflict that is somehow leading you to be LGBT; it could be that kind of therapy. There’s aversion therapy, where you try to pair same-sex images with something that’s physically not pleasurable or disgusting. There’s the “pray your gay away” approach with ongoing counseling. There’s a range of different practices that might be used; some may not seem harmful except when you go to the underlying premise that there’s something wrong with being gay and this is why they want to ban it, because saying homosexuality is wrong, harmful, or evil is harmful to the gay agenda and let’s do something to change that. That ongoing exposure is very harmful. People use that as a rationale for saying it’s wrong to be gay or gay people should be denied rights. It does more harm than good and there’s no evidence that it works.

(Proof That Homosexuality Can Be Overcome)

Usually when I think of conversion therapy, I think of these horrible, abusive boot camps I’ve seen on TV. Is all conversion therapy like that?

I think it can range. There are horrible situations like boot camps, but there are practices that seem more benign but are still harmful because of the message that something is wrong with you if you’re LGBT.   so the banning the therapy is a statement in favor of homosexuality, not the methodology of the therapy

What are some of the harmful effects?

One thing that’s important to recognize is that most of this is anecdotal. No one will fund this kind of study. why not the gay "community" certainly has the money for it, what are they afraid of? When we’re talking about the harmful effects, a lot of it is on people who have been through it or face other forms of discrimination. You can consider it a form of bullying – so there’s depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, low self-esteem – all things you’d expect if you’re told something innate about you that’s wrong and there’s an underlying psychological problem that you have and you spend tons and tons of time trying to change it. You can understand why most people who have gone through ex-ex-gay experiences of them report that it was psychologically damaging.

Every major organization that studies this issue has said this is a practice that has no evidence that it works and it causes harm. People are understanding what the president was saying, that we as a society recognize that it’s one thing if an adult makes a choice and it’s another if a kid does. Adults have more of a chance of making a choice without being coerced, but the risk for a child is overwhelming. It’s very important that people realize that it’s about banning conversion therapy for kids for now, though personally, as an adult, I think it’s a potentially harmful practice and if it's banned in every state then we will go after banning it for adults.

Kids are not in a position to make this decision freely, which makes it particularly dangerous. For adults, it’s harmful, but in theory, an adult has more control over whether or not they can stop. Kids may not be in a position to stop.

Are there any laws that crack down on conversion therapy?

Only in a few states. As a field it’s very important that we go out there and talk about this because we created this monster – helped create. We’re the ones who said in the 50s that LGBT were different forms of mental illnesses and came up with the non-falsifiable theory as to how people become LGBT. Now people in the field say it’s not ethical, but it’s important for our field to speak out and say we made this mess; we’re the ones who have to clean it up.

Were you surprised to hear President Obama condemn conversion therapy and make it an issue?

I wasn’t expecting it, but I think the president has taken opportunities to speak out on important social issues before.

What do you think the impact will be?

I’m hoping it will be on multiple levels. There are millions of LGBT kids and adults out there who have been told there’s something wrong with them. I hope this at the very least is a powerful statement from the President of the United States saying there’s nothing wrong with you; you don’t need to change; you’re good the way you are.

That in and of itself is an incredibly powerful and important message. That’s huge – that’s not been said before by a sitting president. I think he’s also bringing to light that every major organization condemns this practice and the more people hear that, the more they’re like, “Oh, it’s not just the President giving his belief; let’s look into it; there’s no evidence of this. It’s not a mental health disorder.”

I think that’s a powerful message to LGBT people and non-LGBT people that this is a charade and the light is being shined on it. And maybe a certan number of practitioners were doing something they thought was harmful but now see the data doesn’t support it and that it can be harmful and they may not practice it anymore. And people will rally in more states and make it illegal with kids. There are multiple ways in which by saying this sort of thing, the President is really shining the spotlight on trying to reduce discrimination against LGBT people in the country and the world and I applaud it.

(Metro) highlights our additions