Oklahoma’s most notorious anti-gay lawmaker is successfully pushing legislation to protect harmful “ex-gay” conversion therapy.
Last month Oklahoma Republican representative Sally Kern filed three anti-LGBT bills. If all three were to become law, it would be nearly impossible for any LGBT person to live in the Sooner State.
Kern was persuaded by her colleagues to withdraw one bill – a license to discriminate against gay people – as another lawmaker’s was more comprehensive, but two others remain.
One, a bill that effectively defunds same-sex marriage and makes it illegal for county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, advanced out of committee last week.
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The second, a bill that protects harmful and dangerous so-called conversion, reparative, or “ex-gay” therapy, advanced out of committee today. “Ex-gay” therapy claims to be able to change a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual, despite no scientific evidence that it is effective – and despite the stance of nearly every major medical organization against it.
In a 5-3 vote with no debate, the Oklahoma House Children, Youth and Family Services Committee sent the legislation to the full House for a vote. Kern is the Committee Chair.
The bill is likely a response to laws passed in California, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. that ban the practice of conversion therapy on minors.Â
Those laws have withstood legal scrutiny. One judge earlier this month classified conversion therapy as “fraud.”
Kern is a religious extremist who has characterized gay people as “dangerous,” “sinful,” and as “an enemy who wants to destroy us.” She has also said gays have hijacked freedom and equality “to destroy the future of America,” and claimed they are more dangerous than terrorists.
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Image by David Glover via Flickr and a CC license