Will Obama’s Call For Ban On Harmful ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy Make It Happen Quicker?

The lynchpin of the religious right’s anti-gay hate is that gay people choose to be gay, and can be changed. Will Obama’s call to ban this quack “therapy” help?

Last night, the White House announced President Barack Obama had decided to call for a ban on “ex-gay,” “reparative,” or “conversion” therapy for minors. Practitioners of these so-called “therapies” claim they can change the sexual orientation of a person from gay to straight – although none has ever claimed to be able to do the opposite. 

Many major medical organizations have denounced these practices as not only ineffective, but as possibly harmful or dangerous, because they are. It is impossible to change a person from gay to straight, and recently, a New Jersey judge ruled anyone who said they could was guilty of “fraud.”

The President’s stunning announcement came in response to a petition posted on the White House’s website, calling for the enactment of Leelah’s Law, named for Leelah Alcorn, the transgender teen who killed herself after posting, in heart-wrenching detail, the rejection she lived with from her parents, and how they sent her to Christian therapists who tried to change her. 

“My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year,” Leelah wrote. “I want someone to look at that number and say ‘that’s fucked up’ and fix it. Fix society. Please.”

As The New Civil Rights Movement noted in reporting the President’s actions last night, the petition he responded to was the one NCRM had been pushing to meet the threshold. Our readers in just two days added over 34,000 signatures to it, just before the deadline was to pass. 

President Obama said he would not call for a federal ban, although he is “open to it,” the New York Times reported. “Instead, he will throw his support behind the efforts to ban the practice at the state level.”

So where are the states?

California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have solid bans in place, but around the nation Republican lawmakers are killing attempts in their states to add these protections for children. They claim parents should have the “choice,” as if they think parents should have the “choice” to torture their children – which is what “ex-gay” therapy is.

New York Magazine today notes in Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, and Virginia, lawmakers just killed bills that would have banned the practice on minors. 

In these eight states, Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, bills have been introduced, but are languishing. 

And in these seven states, there has been some movement, but not enough: Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Texas.

That means in 33 states, there’s not even an active bill to ban these dangerous practices.

On the White House petition, Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett wrote, “As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this Administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.”

That, in itself, sends a powerful and strong message.

Let’s hope the states are listening.

One final note: Anti-gay organizations and hate groups have insisted that being gay is a choice, and therefore a behavior, not an innate characteristic, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary. They use this false claim to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars annually, to stay in business. When “ex-gay” therapy once and for all falls, it will be one more nail in the coffins of the anti-gay hate groups. We should try to educate any state lawmaker who opposes these bans. And if they are still opposed, we should ensure that office is occupied by a legislator who does not believe in child torture. 

Image by Will Choi via Flickr and a CC license