November 28, 2012

Excerpt from the JONAH Press Release: “JONAH will vigorously defend itself and gender-affirming processes from the baseless attack contained in the lawsuit. Arthur Goldberg, JONAH’s Co-Director, stated, “We remain steadfast in our commitment to assist those with unwanted same-sex attractions. There are thousands of people who have shed their unwanted same-sex attractions, not only through our programs, but also through other similar programs”. See www.voices-of -change.org. … The intent of this lawsuit is to totally deny individuals the freedom to seek help for their own unwanted same-sex attractions. This bias denies the diversity of thought, belief and feeling within the GLBT and Questioning population. Whatever SPLC’s goals, this narrow-minded lawsuit runs directly contrary to true support for diversity and tolerance. “

November 27, 2012

Excerpt from the article on the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) website: “The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit today accusing a New Jersey organization of consumer fraud for offering conversion therapy services – a dangerous and discredited practice that claims to convert people from gay to straight. … ‘People who are told repeatedly that they are innately defective are being abused and traumatized,’ said Laura Booker, a licensed clinical social worker who helps people recover from conversion therapy’s devastating effects. …‘They may spend years recovering from the trauma inflicted upon them.’ Conversion therapy also promotes the idea that gay men and lesbians choose their sexual orientation, a position that encourages a climate of anti-gay bigotry.” [Editor’s note: I have not found any professional sexual orientation therapists or ex-gay ministries who tell their clients they are “innately defective” or who “promote the idea that gay men and lesbians choose their sexual orientation.”]

November 27, 2012

Excerpt from the article in the Washington Times: “Of the nearly 48,000 new HIV cases identified in the United States in 2010, the latest year for which complete data are available, more than 12,000 involved teens and young adults, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found in its latest report. About 72 percent of these new HIV cases in younger adults occurred in young men who are gay or bisexual, according to the CDC report.”

November 26, 2012

Excerpts from Congresswoman Jackie Speiers’ resolution: “Expressing the sense of Congress efforts by mental health practitioners to change an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity or expression are dangerous and harmful and should be prohibited from being practiced on minors. Whereas being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or gender nonconforming is not a disorder, disease, illness, deficiency, or shortcoming;… Congress encourages each State to take steps to protect minors from efforts that promote or promise to change sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, based on the premise that homosexuality is a mental illness or developmental disorder that can or should be cured.”

November 21, 2012

Excerpts from Debora Barr on the PFOX website: “Radical transformation is possible! I lived 18 years of my life as a lesbian with absolutely no desire to change. Now that I have been set free from my invisible shackles, I am experiencing the most wholesome and unconditional love of my Savior, Jesus Christ and will never turn back!” … “They confronted our beliefs in a gentle and loving way, never backing down from their convictions, but gently showing us what the scriptures said about the way we were living. Over time, the Lord convicted us through his word – the Truth.”

November 19, 2012

Beginning of the Introduction to Liberty Counsel’s reply legal arguments: “The Legislature has far exceeded its authority to regulate mental health professionals by enacting SB 1172, an unprecedented, unconstitutional infringement upon the fundamental rights of mental health practitioners, minor patients and their parents who will now be prohibited from providing or receiving Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (“SOCE”) therapy to treat unwanted same-sex attractions. Rather than seeking to protect minors from ‘harm,’ the Legislature has in fact enacted SB 1172 as a means of controlling minors’ thoughts.” Read the rest of this entry →

November 14, 2012

Excerpts from the article on NARTH’s website: “When CDC statistics on HIV diagnoses in 2010 are put into a comparison ratio …, the risk of HIV infection for MSM was approximately 150 times greater than for men who did not have sex with men. In addition, the CDC stated that the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is “more than 46 times that of other men and more than 71 times that of women.”[ … “As the present analysis underscores, politicians and regulatory boards that ban access to professional efforts to modify unwanted same-sex attractions and behaviors among minors may well be unnecessarily sentencing some of them to serious medical risks. It is tragically ironic that political efforts to prevent alleged harm to minors from sexual-orientation change efforts appear likely instead to increase their exposure to highly established harms such as HIV.”

November 13, 2012

Excerpts from the article on Mercatornet.com : “When CDC statistics are analyzed using the estimate of the MSM population at 4 percent of the American male population and assuming the other 96 percent who do not have sex with men are heterosexual, the risk of HIV infection from sexual contact for MSM was approximately 150 times greater than the heterosexual male population in 2010. … the 1993 Alan Guttmacher Institute study on male sexual behavior estimated the MSM population at 1.8 to 2.8 percent of the U.S. male population. If the CDC figure is correct, these two figures suggest that the percentage of MSM to the American male population has doubled in the last twenty years.”

November 9, 2012

Dr. Mike Davidson book The Right to Decide: Seeking justice for choices around unwanted same-sex attractions was recently published. The book is a compilation of storied of those who have walked away from homosexuality. Excerpt from the Introduction: “Yet my own conviction is that this new society in the UK, in its determination to redefine marriage, family and parenting, is about to disrespect profoundly and to violate individuals who have chosen, or will chose … to walk away from homosexuality.” Link to the book.

November 9, 2012

Dr Mike Davidson of Core Issues Trust has started a petition to the United Kingdom’s Department of Health in support of those with unwanted same-sex attractions who seek professional help to change their sexual orientation. The petition reads: “Ideological decisions to refuse adult individuals seeking professional psychotherapeutic help to reduce unwanted same-sex attractions, are a violation of personal autonomy and personal rights. No credible, incontrovertible evidence exists to prove that homosexuality is inborn, and is unchangeable in all cases. Married men, who wish to stay in their married relationships with a woman, should not be denied the opportunity to reduce homosexual feelings, if that is their desire. Professionals should not be penalised for assisting them, when this is the genuine desire of their client and a reasonable personal goal.”