NEWCASTLE, March. -- Children in Marchenay will no longer be able to receive conversion therapy, after Governor David Brown signed a bill banning the controversial practice Friday.
Conversion therapy is a form of mental health counseling that seeks to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. It's often encouraged and practiced by conservative religious groups, including Evangelical Christians, Jewish and Muslim groups, who view homosexuality as a sin and inconsistent with their respective doctrines.
Brown, a Conservative, said he normally does not like to inject himself into religious debates, but the issue of young people being harmed by counselors who promise to change the client's sexual orientation is too important to ignore.
"A person does not choose their sexual orientation. It's not simply a bad habit that can be changed or minimized, like alcoholism and drug abuse. People should be encouraged to live their true identities, and too many young people have taken their lives or attempted to because they were promised they could change when they simply cannot, and should not," said Brown.
The law received broad support from both major political parties. It was co-sponsored by openly gay state Delegate Scott Morrison (N-Farmerton) and state Senator Mike Grimsby (C-Weld), whose teenage son is gay.
Christian groups, along with Jewish and Muslim groups, were quick to criticize the bill's passage.
"Young people, especially teenagers who are just setting out on the long path of their sexual and relational journeys, if they so choose, should have the right, just like anyone else, to seek counseling from legitimate, licensed mental health professionals who choose to offer caring and compassionate therapy in a safe environment," said the Grassadellian Association of Christian Counselors, in a written statement following the bill's signing.
The Jewish Safe Harbor Foundation issued a joint statement with the Muslim non-profit A New Way Forward, with both organizations saying the law harms people of faith who want to change their sexual orientation.
"Just as the government should not compel people to be heterosexual, the government should also not compel people to be homosexual. That's effectively what this legislation does. It takes away the legally-protected right of young adults to find help and healing in their sexuality," the statement said.
Joel Baaken, an attorney with the Religious Liberty Foundation, a non-profit Christian legal group that defends churches and religious groups in legal matters, assailed the new law as an infringement on freedom of choice and freedom of speech.
"This law is basically telling people, 'the government disagrees with your opinion, the government is wading into the scientific and psychological debate surrounding sexuality and religion and the government disagrees with this line of thinking, so you can't obtain any counseling, even if it's voluntary.' That's a very scary place for our country to be in right now," said Baaken.
Meanwhile, the arguments from the other side were equally emotional.
"My teenage son wanted to kill himself because he couldn't reconcile his sexuality with our family's Christian faith," said state Senator Mike Grimsby, the leading Conservative who co-sponsored the bill. "When he finally told my wife and me he had secretly been receiving conversion therapy and it hadn't worked, it broke our hearts that he was trying to change who he was born to be."
Grimsby's son ended up embracing his sexuality, and his family was supportive, but "the damage was done," the senator said.
Scott Morrison, the NAT state delegate who co-sponsored the legislation, said he tried conversion therapy as a youth and remembered sobbing every night wishing he could change, as he was promised he could by his conservative Christian counselors.
"The emotional agony of trying to change your sexuality cannot be overstated. You live every day trying to change to become straight. You think, 'if I just pray hard enough, if I just read my Bible enough, if I surround myself with enough Christian friends, maybe I'll become straight.' But it doesn't work because it's not credible science, and so many young people become suicidal trying to change something that doesn't need changing," said Morrison.
The Grassadellia Association of Mental Health Professionals or GAMHP, lobbied in favor of the bill. The group has long been critical of conversion therapy, striking it from its manual of practices back in the early 1990s.
"The GAMHP believes strongly that conversion therapy is not rooted in science, is not effective, and is in fact harmful to patients," said the group's president, Dr. Mark Gregory.
The Grassadellian Human Rights Watch and The Love Campaign, two leading gay rights groups, praised the new law and lauded Gov. David Brown for supporting it.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party's Evangelical members are deciding whether to challenge Brown in a primary election next year. Brown is up for re-election in 2018 in a state that leans to the centre-left NAT Party.
Conversion therapy is a form of mental health counseling that seeks to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. It's often encouraged and practiced by conservative religious groups, including Evangelical Christians, Jewish and Muslim groups, who view homosexuality as a sin and inconsistent with their respective doctrines.
Brown, a Conservative, said he normally does not like to inject himself into religious debates, but the issue of young people being harmed by counselors who promise to change the client's sexual orientation is too important to ignore.
"A person does not choose their sexual orientation. It's not simply a bad habit that can be changed or minimized, like alcoholism and drug abuse. People should be encouraged to live their true identities, and too many young people have taken their lives or attempted to because they were promised they could change when they simply cannot, and should not," said Brown.
The law received broad support from both major political parties. It was co-sponsored by openly gay state Delegate Scott Morrison (N-Farmerton) and state Senator Mike Grimsby (C-Weld), whose teenage son is gay.
Christian groups, along with Jewish and Muslim groups, were quick to criticize the bill's passage.
"Young people, especially teenagers who are just setting out on the long path of their sexual and relational journeys, if they so choose, should have the right, just like anyone else, to seek counseling from legitimate, licensed mental health professionals who choose to offer caring and compassionate therapy in a safe environment," said the Grassadellian Association of Christian Counselors, in a written statement following the bill's signing.
The Jewish Safe Harbor Foundation issued a joint statement with the Muslim non-profit A New Way Forward, with both organizations saying the law harms people of faith who want to change their sexual orientation.
"Just as the government should not compel people to be heterosexual, the government should also not compel people to be homosexual. That's effectively what this legislation does. It takes away the legally-protected right of young adults to find help and healing in their sexuality," the statement said.
Joel Baaken, an attorney with the Religious Liberty Foundation, a non-profit Christian legal group that defends churches and religious groups in legal matters, assailed the new law as an infringement on freedom of choice and freedom of speech.
"This law is basically telling people, 'the government disagrees with your opinion, the government is wading into the scientific and psychological debate surrounding sexuality and religion and the government disagrees with this line of thinking, so you can't obtain any counseling, even if it's voluntary.' That's a very scary place for our country to be in right now," said Baaken.
Meanwhile, the arguments from the other side were equally emotional.
"My teenage son wanted to kill himself because he couldn't reconcile his sexuality with our family's Christian faith," said state Senator Mike Grimsby, the leading Conservative who co-sponsored the bill. "When he finally told my wife and me he had secretly been receiving conversion therapy and it hadn't worked, it broke our hearts that he was trying to change who he was born to be."
Grimsby's son ended up embracing his sexuality, and his family was supportive, but "the damage was done," the senator said.
Scott Morrison, the NAT state delegate who co-sponsored the legislation, said he tried conversion therapy as a youth and remembered sobbing every night wishing he could change, as he was promised he could by his conservative Christian counselors.
"The emotional agony of trying to change your sexuality cannot be overstated. You live every day trying to change to become straight. You think, 'if I just pray hard enough, if I just read my Bible enough, if I surround myself with enough Christian friends, maybe I'll become straight.' But it doesn't work because it's not credible science, and so many young people become suicidal trying to change something that doesn't need changing," said Morrison.
The Grassadellia Association of Mental Health Professionals or GAMHP, lobbied in favor of the bill. The group has long been critical of conversion therapy, striking it from its manual of practices back in the early 1990s.
"The GAMHP believes strongly that conversion therapy is not rooted in science, is not effective, and is in fact harmful to patients," said the group's president, Dr. Mark Gregory.
The Grassadellian Human Rights Watch and The Love Campaign, two leading gay rights groups, praised the new law and lauded Gov. David Brown for supporting it.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party's Evangelical members are deciding whether to challenge Brown in a primary election next year. Brown is up for re-election in 2018 in a state that leans to the centre-left NAT Party.
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