June 13th, 2013
The New Jersey Assembly’s Women and Children’s Committee voted to approve A3371, which would prohibit licensed therapists in the sate of New Jersey from providing therapies intended to change sexual orientation to minors. The 4-1 vote (with one abstention) occurred after two and a half hours of testimony by opponents and supporters, including Parsippany High School student Jacob Rudolph, who told the panel “I am not broken, I am not confused. I do not need to be fixed.”
“Our government has an obligation to protect children in our society – individuals who are unable to make their own legal decisions. Our government therefore has an obligation to prohibit the fraudulent and cruel practice of conversion therapy from being imposed on minors,” Rudolph said.
Jean Mercer, a developmental psychologist and retired Stockton College professor, said the only research that supports conversion therapy is “fraught with inaccuracies and omissions.”
“If conversions therapies had been shown to be necessary, safe and effective, discomfort associated with them might be acceptable, as we accept a certain amount of discomfort with medical treatments. Because they have not, we must consider whether in fact these treatments are abusive,” Mercer said.
Christopher Doyle a counselor at the California-based International Healing Foundation and a former homosexual, said the stories about this form of therapy forced on minors are distorted and untrue. He said he has been providing this therapy for four years, assisting as many as 150 clients with “unwanted same sex attractions who come to me wanting to change.”
The International Healing Foundation is run by ex-gay gadfly Richard Cohen, who was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association in 2002 for multiple ethical violations. He has been criticized for his unorthodox holding technique for “curing” gay people.
The bill now goes to the floor of the Assembly and the Senate.
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customartist
June 14th, 2013
The key word here being “Minors”.
Minors would not be allowed to elect or to “want” any other major medical or psychological “treatments”, and they should not be allowed to make this determination either.
And for this reasoning alone, Christopher Doyle is a stereotypical quack.
Charles
June 15th, 2013
customartist, I made the same point on an earlier thread, we are talking about minors being abused by their parents. If some adult would like to try conversion therapy, let them try. But they should have better sense.
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