I know that this is a controversial topic right now and that this may offend a lot of people, however, I will continue. At the end of this Post I will add all of my sources so you can look through them and do studying of your own.
So, I have a problem. Specifically with the States California, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon. I also have a problem with Whitehouse in this specific area. I do not agree that we should ban all conversion therapy in our country, especially for minors. That severely limits the possibilities for people who struggle with Same Sex attraction but don't want to be gay. People can change. Not everybody wants to, and that is just fine, but we need to make sure that we allow people a chance to change and become what they want to. I will tell you why this bothers me so much. I want to be a therapist, I want to be able to help people through their personal challenges and struggles. With a law like this it makes it all but impossible to talk about . The petition Leelah's Law to Ban All LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapy puts therapy in a dark light by implying that when therapists go through this process that they attempt to "brainwash" their clients. Now I understand the petition's main concern is for children and adolescents who aren't in charge of their own legal rights and don't want to go to therapy. I just think that it is a shame to kill a therapy that has helped people change. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJhyzqdzpnM)
We shouldn't ban a therapy unless it is proven useless. Fun fact about this therapy is the APA states in their brief that "There are no studies of adequate scientific rigor to conclude whether or not recent SOCE do or do not work to change a person's sexual orientation." (http://www.apa.org/about/policy/sexual-orientation.pdf) We should do more research before we blatantly make laws that could prove more harmful than useful in the future when evidence does come through.
The Recap:
We should only change the availabilities of therapy and other resources if they prove completely dangerous and inefficient.
We need to care for the well-being of everyone and protect the importance of human life.
Perhaps the most important: We need to allow people who want to change the chance to do so, while at the same time not forcing anyone to change. We are all Children of God, so lets start acting like it.
Side note:
I just want to make a quick comment about Same Sex-Attraction vs Gay. Often times we mistakenly use the words to mean the same thing. Same-Sex Attraction means that the individual has some level of attraction towards their same sex(this attraction is mostly a desire for intimacy, not purely sexual). The attraction can be anywhere on a scale from weak to strong. The word Gay is used as an identity. It means that the person identify themselves according to their Same-Sex attraction and embrace the ideals that come with the gay culture.
Extra Sources:
https://byui.brightspace.com/content/enforced/106717-Campus.Reference.FAML160/assets/byrd_article.pdf?attachment=1&_&d2lSessionVal=wx3Y8bp5oI19HXsqLBl9Qw1Tm
https://byui.brightspace.com/content/enforced/106717-Campus.Reference.FAML160/assets/Understanding%20Same-Sex%20Attraction.pdf?attachment=1&_&d2lSessionVal=wx3Y8bp5oI19HXsqLBl9Qw1Tm
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