GAY TRUTH

The chair of the California LGBT Caucus recently introduced a bill to outlaw Christians and others with a Biblical view of sexuality from helping people with unwanted same-sex desires or gender identity confusion. Assemblyman Evan Low’s bill, AB 2943 , declares “advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual” as illegal under state’s consumer fraud law. The implications of this legislation spread far beyond regulating the type of counselling offered by licensed counsellors, who are already banned from helping minors with unwanted same-sex attractions . Several legal experts have confirmed that this bill targets the ability of religious non-profits, churches, and pastors from teaching and practising their faith regarding sexual orientation and gender. “The language used in this bill casts a wide net calculated to entangle religious institutions and ministers,” said Kevin Snider, Chief Counsel Pacific Justice Institute . “

Gordon College (Massachusetts) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) What Lies Ahead What does the current legal and cultural landscape suggest? Here are three predictions. Prediction #1: Only religious groups (by no means all of them) will impose restrictions based on sexual conduct . That is in stark contrast to the many groups that make gender-based distinctions: fraternities and sororities, women's colleges, single-sex private high schools, sports teams, fitness clubs, and strip clubs, to name a few.  It is perhaps unsurprising in light of these observations that views on gender and sexual conduct have flip-flopped. Thirty years ago, many people were concerned about gender equality , but few had LGBTQ equality on their radar. Today, if you ask your average 20-year-old whether it is worse for a fraternity to exclude women or for a Christian group to ask gay and lesbian members to refrain from sexual conduct, the responses would be overwhelmingly in one direction. That trend will l