Aug. 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com)
- Few people doubt that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hopes to become
president in 2016. Unfortunately for him, he may have just signed away
any chance of that.
On Monday, Christie signed A3371, a draconian piece of legislation that
bars licensed therapists from helping children overcome unwanted
same-sex attractions, behavior or identity. This law bans help for
minors even when – as is so often the case – those same-sex attractions
arise from childhood sexual abuse by the likes of a Jerry Sandusky.
This law will prohibit minors and their parents from receiving
counseling they desire and will force counselors to violate ethical
codes because they will not be able to help clients reach their own
counseling goals. This law would enslave children – whether abused or
not – to a subjectively determined sexual identity that they reject.
The connection between homosexual abuse and “gay identity” is
undeniable. Consider this: Researchers from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that homosexual men are “at
least three times more likely to report CSA (childhood sexual abuse)”
than heterosexual men.
Moreover, the Archives of Sexual Behavior – no bastion of conservatism –
determined in a 2001 study that nearly half of all gay-identified men
were molested by a homosexual pedophile: “46 percent of homosexual men
and 22 percent of homosexual women reported having been molested by a
person of the same gender. This contrasts to only 7 percent of
heterosexual men and 1 percent of heterosexual women reporting having
been molested by a person of the same gender” noted the study.
For obvious reasons, this politically motivated law has been dubbed the
“Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act.” Liberty Counsel, one of the fastest
growing civil rights law firms in the country, has stepped in to
protect New Jersey children, parents and licensed therapists. We’ve
filed suit to block the law, as we’ve already blocked a similar law in
California.
In his signing statement, Gov. Christie wrote: “Government should tread
carefully into this area and I do so here reluctantly. I have
scrutinized this piece of legislation with that concern in mind.
However, I also believe that on issues of medical treatment for children
we must look to experts in the field to determine the relative risks
and rewards.”
Beyond the fact that Christie and the New Jersey Legislature have just
violated the First Amendment rights of New Jersey parents, children and
counselors, there remains another problem with his assertion. It’s not
true. As with any form of therapy, the “experts” are all over the board
on the issue of change therapy.
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For instance, both New Jersey Democrats and Christie cited the American
Psychological Association, or APA, as justification for this gross
infringement on the right of self-determination. Although, no doubt, the
highly liberal APA supports this and similar Sandusky Laws for
political reasons, the group’s own task force on change therapy – led
entirely by members who themselves are “gay”-identified or known
political activists – has had to admit, nonetheless, that homosexuality
itself “refers to feelings and self-concept.”
The taskforce confessed that such therapy has shown “varying degrees of
satisfaction and varying perceptions of success.” It acknowledged
within its own skewed, very limited “study” that some people had
“altered their sexual orientation. … [P]articipants had multiple
endpoints, including LGB identity, ex-gay identity, no sexual
orientation identity, and a unique self-identity. … Individuals report a
range of effects from their efforts to change their sexual orientation,
including both benefits and harm.”
Reports of “both benefits and harm”? Exactly what might be expected from any form of therapy.
But that’s for adults. Here’s the kicker: The APA also acknowledged
that there is no evidence whatsoever that change therapy harms minors.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, addressed this, the
most outrageous aspect of the law: “The very report that the governor
cited for signing this law also admitted that there is absolutely zero
research – none – regarding the effect of change therapy with minors.”
Get that? Gov. Christie just signed into law a bill purporting to
prevent harm to minors from change therapy, citing, as the reason, an
APA report that admits there is neither research nor empirical evidence
to suggest that change therapy harms minors.
Is your head swimming? It should be.
The governor is one of three things. He is either: 1) ill-informed, 2) politically motivated or 3) stupid.
I don’t know, I guess he could be 4) all of the above.
Meanwhile, there are many experts outraged over this gross overreach by
Christie and other New Jersey liberals. Dr. Nicholas Cummings, former
president of the APA, wrote in USA Today: “Contending that all same-sex
attraction is immutable is a distortion of reality. Attempting to
characterize all sexual reorientation therapy as ‘unethical’ violates
patient choice and gives an outside party a veto over patients’ goals
for their own treatment. A political agenda shouldn’t prevent gays and
lesbians who desire to change from making their own decisions.”
Dr. Cummings has testified to personally helping hundreds of formerly homosexual clients achieve the change they desired.
Things get more sinister yet. On Wednesday, New Jersey Assemblyman Tim
Eustace, who sponsored the bill and is openly homosexual, bombastically
compared change therapy to “beating a child” and suggested that the
government take children seeking change away from their parents. He told
Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, “What this does is prevent things that are
harmful to people. If a parent were beating their child on a regular
basis we would step in and remove that child from the house. If you pay
somebody to beat your child or abuse your child, what’s the difference?”
Mat Staver responded on the same program: “It is shocking to hear the
law’s sponsor threaten parents that the state will remove their children
from them if they provide the counsel they need and which helps them.
This is the ultimate nanny state,” he said.
I’ll take it a step further, and I think I speak for many Christian
fathers. None of my three children suffer from unwanted same-sex
attraction, but if any of them did and they decided to seek change
therapy to reconcile their feelings with their faith, Mr. Eustace and
the rest of his Gaystapo would be extremely ill-advised to crest my
front porch with designs on taking my children.
Is this George Washington’s America, or Joseph Stalin’s Russia?
