Watch: Anderson Cooper Holds Texas GOP Lawmaker Accountable For Supporting ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy

CNN’s Anderson Cooper last night, with surgical precision, sliced, diced, and effectively demolished a Texas Republican lawmaker’s false claims about so-called “ex-gay” or “reparative” therapy. 

The Lone Star State’s GOP embraced the harmful and ineffective practice that supporters claim turns gay people straight, as part of its official 2014 platform last week.

LOOK: Just How Anti-Gay Is The Texas GOP’s 2014 Platform? ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy Just The Beginning

Cooper spoke with state Rep. Bryan Hughes, who has voted for the platform that for years has contained vicious anti-gay rhetoric. Hughes explained that the Texas GOP added support for “ex-gay” therapy after one delegate’s neighbor expressed concern lawmakers might make it illegal.

“The language is in the platform because we want to make sure that people have rights,” Hughes offers as a reason to support ineffective and harmful “reparative” therapy. “We heard from people who wanted access to that kind of counseling, that kind of therapy, and so we believe in free speech, in free choice.”

“This is about giving people choices,” Hughes claims. “If they want this, it should be available to them.” No discussion of access to abortion services came up.

Hughes tried to claim there is “medical literature on both sides of the issue,” which Cooper blasted.

“It’s really just not accurate to say that doctors are evenly divided,” Cooper said. “I could give you a list: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American School Counselors’ Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers. They represent half a million mental health professionals, they all say this is not a mental disorder. It’s not something that needs to be cured.”

Cooper even slammed Hughes’ claim that people on both sides testified before the platform committee as “not true.” Hughes could not state who testified against the plank.

“Does it concern you, again, that your party is now backing a form of therapy which basically every major medical organization says doesn’t work, can be harmful, and which many of the people who have been through it say it doesn’t work and is bad for kids?” Cooper asked Hughes.

“No one is saying that God doesn’t love people as they are,” Hughes told Cooper, in response to a clip of former Exodus International president Alan Chambers’ disavowal of “ex-gay” therapy. “There’s nothing in the platform about that. No one is trying to take that position. Every one of us makes mistakes, makes decisions we’re not proud of. God loves each one of us, and he offers us a way for us to deal with sin and bad choices. But I do strongly disagree with what he said about God not loving people.”

“The fact that you view being gay — or you characterize it — as a ‘mistake,’ or something that should be changed really kind of maybe says more about your position than what your words actually say,” Cooper pointed out.

“I believe that God has created us to work in a certain way, and when we deviate from that in any area, there are consequences. It doesn’t mean He doesn’t love us, it doesn’t mean we can’t love and we can’t be saved,” Hughes concluded — ignoring the wall between church and state.

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