California has set yet another interesting trend.
If you're a young person who discovers you have have homosexual tendencies, decide that's not what you want in life and want to seek counseling or therapy to help you towards eliminating those tendencies, you are now breaking the law. And so is anyone who provides that counseling.
Governor Jerry Brown, after heavy lobbying from gay activist groups has just signed a bill outlawing any therapy or counseling for minors that attempts "to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."
While the law is targeted at mental health professionals, in practice under the new law, SB1172, even a young person seeking counseling from his rabbi, pastor, imam or priest on the matter of trying to give up homosexuality is banned. That is, unless the cleric's response is to dissuade them from wanting to eschew homosexuality, hand them a rainbow sticker and tell them to be proud to be gay!
Needless to say, this isn't the sort of thing Governor Brown and his Democrat cohorts want to bother consulting the voters about.
The supposed rationale behind this law is that there are supposedly thousands of gay teens being forcibly 'repaired' by religious wackos posing as therapists to give up homosexuality, and that it may cause the teens psychological damage.
Needless to say, there are no actual figures on this, but I have no doubt that may have happened in a few cases and that gay rights groups have a couple of poster children this happened to ready and waiting in the wings for the media. But instead of simply allowing the victims to sue the parties responsible and allow a court to decide as prescribed by existing law, the Governor and the California legislature has decided to simply take everyone's choice away, satisfy the gay lobby, and keep those campaign contributions coming in.
One interesting question this raises. The Qu'ran is violently anti-gay, and alone among religious scriptures mandates the death penalty for homosexuals.Is California going to ban the Qu'ran, and legally sanction any imam who preaches or sermonizes on the topic of homosexuality? After all, religious ministry is definitely a form of counseling, and this would simply be a logical extension of this law.
Strange days indeed.
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