A “POLITICAL” OR PERSONAL ISSUE?
by Jerry Kane, blogging at The Millstone Diaries, ©2019
(Dec. 3, 2019) — Utah Governor Gary Herbert has announced that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) will now support the state’s ‘conversion therapy’ ban it had opposed earlier this year.
“Conversion therapy” is a loosely defined term used by media, politicians, and LGBTQ activists to discredit any therapy that claims to modify or change a person’s sexual behavior, i.e., from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
“These ‘therapy ban’ laws effectively kick the clients out of the driver’s seat of their own therapy and put politicians in the driver’s seat, instead. The government shouldn’t be deciding what people should do with their sexuality. Politicians have no business telling people their therapy goals are illegal. Nor do they have any business telling people that they, the politicians, know “who the client really is” and that the client’s legitimate identity must inevitably be ‘gay.’” — Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr.
Mormon leaders decided to support the ban after Herbert and Utah’s legislators “carefully tailored” the rule exempting LDS mental health therapists from it.
The newer version of the regulatory rule exempts LDS “clergy members or religious counselors acting in a religious capacity, or…parents or grandparents who happen to be a mental health therapist if they are talking to children or grandchildren.”
“If radical LGBT activists were so concerned about unethical practices in therapy, they would seek to ban therapeutic methods, like any method that uses shame, pain or coercion to try to change someone’s sexuality. … But that’s not what they’re doing. They’re actually outlawing treatment goals … to decrease one’s unwanted same-sex attractions in the privacy of one’s own therapy.” — Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr., clinical director, Breakthrough clinic
Although the Mormon Church opposes “same-sex marriage” and teaches that homosexuality is a sin, it denounces conversion therapy as abusive and supports banning the practice.
“The media and politicians have been using the term “conversion therapy” for any therapy that claims to modify sexuality from homosexuality to heterosexuality. But they’re not telling the full story. The term “conversion therapy” is broad, ill-defined, there’s no ethics code, no governing organization. And it’s generally practiced by unlicensed individuals.” — Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr., clinical director, Breakthrough clinic
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Read the rest here.