Rhode Island House votes to ban ‘sexual orientation change’ therapy for LGBT kids

The Rhode Island House voted Tuesday to unanimously approve a bill banning pro-heterosexual change therapy for minors, which LGBT activists derisively label “conversion therapy.”

The bill’s sponsor, Democrat Rep. Joseph McNamara, used some of the most overheated rhetoric heard to date in the national debate on this topic, saying the bill “protects minors from this barbaric, dangerous, and discredited practice,” the Providence Journal reported.

McNamara, chairman of the Health, Education and Welfare Committee, cited those who testified in favor of the ban, saying, “They spoke of depression, attempted suicide, substance abuse, and numerous negative outcomes from this so-called therapy,” according to the newspaper.

The Journal echoed the rhetoric of LGBT activists who are now claiming to be victims of the Trump administration after being coddled for eight years under the most pro-homosexual and pro-“transgender” president in American history, Barack Obama. Journal reporters Lynn Arditi and Jacqueline Tempera write:

“The bill (H-5277), introduced by Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, is aimed at protecting LGBTQ youth, supporters said, at a time the community feels increasingly vulnerable under President Donald J. Trump’s administration.

“With the change in administration [in Washington] there’s a real sense that the needs of various disadvantaged groups are going to be ignored if not trampled on or outright repressed,″ said Dr. David Savitsky, associate medical director and chief child psychiatrist at Gateway Healthcare, who testified in support of the bill. “These folks need protections, and, if the feds aren’t going to do it, we have to do it for ourselves.”

Kids can’t ‘explore heterosexuality’?

The Journal reported that on Tuesday, “during the House floor vote, a group of teenagers and advocates gathered in the gallery, some waving handmade rainbow-colored signs.”

“Freud and Lady Gaga got it right when they said, ‘people are born this way,’” McNamara said from the House floor, according to the newspaper, which reported that “The audience applauded wildly, and lawmakers standing in support of the measure smiled.”

But Christopher Doyle, a licensed clinical professional counselor and co-coordinator of the National Task Force for Therapy Equality said the Rhode Island bill is only the latest example of a liberal state using “bad science” to curtail people’s right to seek treatment. That includes the “born gay” myth, he said. Doyle is a former homosexual who himself practices “Reparative Therapy” to help people manage and overcome unwanted same-sex attractions. 

“While these gay activists cite ‘potential harm’ for therapy, they fail to include science from the American Psychological Association's 2014 Handbook on Sexuality and Psychology that says sexual orientation changes throughout the lifespan, with or without therapeutic intervention, for a multitude of individuals!“ 

Doyle notes that “Dr. Lisa Diamond, a lesbian herself who is a co-author of the APA Handbook, has told gay activists to stop saying ‘people are born gay’ because her own research actually shows that the majority of both men and women who experience homosexual feelings also have some level of heterosexual feelings, and that their attractions may change.”

“Essentially, this bill is legislating a lifetime of homosexual attractions for youth who may want to explore their sexuality to see who they really are,” Doyle said. “Why are we saying, you can explore your ‘gay’ identity with a counselor, but you cannot explore heterosexuality as well? What happened to freedom of choice and client self-determination?”

The Journal reports that the bill “now goes before the Senate where identical Senate bill (S-0267), introduced by Sen. Donna M. Nesselbush, D-Pawtucket, is pending in a Senate committee.” It said a similar bill by Nesselbush died in committee last year, as have anti-Reparative-Therapy bills in Massachusetts.

The newspaper reports that “Eight states and Washington, D.C., currently ban the practice: California, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Connecticut and Nevada.”

Doyle and his National Task Force for Therapy Equality recently filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission to set the record straight for legislators and the wider public, to counter the “lies of gay activists, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, and National Center for Lesbian Rights, who are the organizations lobbying for these fraudulent bills.”