Page 76 - Push Back

it illegal for any “physicians and surgeons, psychologists, marriage and family therapists,
educational psychologists, clinical social workers, and licensed professional clinical
counselors,” to engage in “sexual orientation change efforts” with a person under 18 years of
age. This means, even if a child comes to the counselor expressing distress relating to their same-
sex desires, or sexual identity, and they request counseling to change to a normal sexual
orientation, the counselor is legally barred from providing such services. This bill would make it
illegal in the state of California to seek to change any person’s sexual orientation back to
heterosexual if they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Following is an excerpt
from the legislation.

This bill would prohibit a mental health provider, as defined, from engaging in sexual
orientation change efforts, as defined, with a patient under 18 years of age. The bill would
provide that any sexual orientation change efforts attempted on a patient under 18 years of age
by a mental health provider shall be considered unprofessional conduct and shall subject the
provider to discipline by the provider’s licensing entity...

Being lesbian, gay, or bisexual is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency, or shortcoming. The
major professional associations of mental health practitioners and researchers in the United
States have recognized this fact for nearly 40 years.

(b) The American Psychological Association convened a Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic
Responses to Sexual Orientation. The task force conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed
journal literature on sexual orientation change efforts, and issued a report in 2009. The task
force concluded that sexual orientation change efforts can pose critical health risks to lesbian,
gay, and bisexual people, including confusion, depression, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness,
shame, social withdrawal, suicidality, substance abuse, stress, disappointment, self-blame,
decreased self-esteem and authenticity to others, increased self-hatred, hostility and blame
toward parents, feelings of anger and betrayal, loss of friends and potential romantic partners,
problems in sexual and emotional intimacy, sexual dysfunction, high-risk sexual behaviors, a
feeling of being dehumanized and untrue to self, a loss of faith, and a sense of having wasted
time and resources...

Therefore, the American Psychiatric Association opposes any psychiatric treatment such as
reparative or conversion therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se
is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change his/her
sexual homosexual orientation.

You can read the entire bill here:

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB1172

The authority upon which such immoral and far reaching legislation is based, is the American
Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which we have
seen was altered in 1973 by homosexual members of the APA to serve their own degenerate
ends. Forty years later we are seeing the mature fruit of this evil action as America’s children are