Despite his “concerns about [the] government limiting parental choice on the care and treatment of their own children,” Gov. Chris Christie signed into law a ban on ex-gay therapy for minors, thereby committing an outrageous act against both the people of New Jersey and his own Catholic faith.
Buying into the standard gay activist talking points, Christie explained that “on issues of medical treatment for children we must look to experts in the field to determine the relative risks and rewards,” because of which he felt this government intrusion into doctor-patient relationships was justified.
As for Christie’s personal views, he stated, “I’ve always believed that people are born with the predisposition to be homosexual. And so I think if someone is born that way it’s very difficult to say then that’s a sin. But I understand that my church says that, but for me personally I don’t look at someone who is homosexual as a sinner.”
New Jersey is now the second state to sign a ban on “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE) for those under 18, even with parental consent, following California (surprise!), although the California bill has already been challenged in the courts.
On a practical level, this means a 17-year-old girl who was raped at the age of 14 and now feels a repulsion toward men and an attraction toward women cannot seek professional help to get to the root of her feelings, even if her parents back her decision.
That same young woman, however, would be allowed to seek professional help to develop her lesbian identity, even without the backing of her parents.
This is equality under the law? This is tolerance? This is a victory in the war against bigotry and discrimination?
And if this same young woman lived in California and was convinced she was actually a boy trapped in a girl’s body, she could now choose to use the boys’ bathroom and even play on the boys’ basketball team without any scientific diagnosis required.
In fact, it would be perfectly legal for her to undergo hormone therapy to help make her more masculine, soon to be followed by sex-change surgery. Yet if she said, “For many reasons, I’m uncomfortable with my same-sex attractions,” it would be illegal for her to receive counseling. What kind of madness is this?
Gender is now entirely subjective, based on nothing more than one’s personal perceptions, while sexual and romantic attractions are allegedly innate and immutable. Put another way, you are not necessarily born male or female, despite biological and chromosomal evidence, and you can change from male to female. But you are born gay, and you cannot possibly change to become straight.
What about all those who claim to have changed sexual orientation?
They are to be vilified, mocked, discounted and silenced. In fact, they can be freely discriminated against, as Grammy Award-winner and gospel superstar Donnie McClurkin just learned when Washington, D.C., mayor Vincent Gray disinvited him “from performing at a concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1963 civil rights March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream.’”
Why? Because he broke one of today’s biggest politically correct commandments, namely, “Thou shalt not be ex-gay,” which McClurkin is, which means that being gay is not innate and immutable. (This would have to be admitted, at least for some people.)
Yet the McClurkins of this world are now ignored (and worse) while testimony from someone like Brielle Goldani (born a male), which was apparently fabricated based on a movie script, helped push the New Jersey ban through.
What about the overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrating clearly that SOCE is harmful and destructive? It doesn’t exist.
Christie relied on a study conducted by a task force appointed by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2007 that concluded “efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm, contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates.”
Yet this task force consisted entirely of gay activist psychologists and their allies, which would be the equivalent of asking Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to head a study of whether or not racial discrimination against blacks exists in America or asking Al Gore and Greenpeace to investigate whether man-made global warming exists.
In fact, gay activist bias in the APA has become so extreme that no less a figure than Dr. Nicholas Cummings, a past president of the APA, has become an outspoken critic of the attack on SOCE, arguing in a recent USA Today editorial, “A political agenda shouldn’t prevent gays and lesbians who desire to change from making their own decisions.”
Dr. Cummings states that he personally helped “hundreds” of homosexuals change their orientation to heterosexual while helping many others “attain a happier and more stable homosexual lifestyle.” (Cummings, it should be noted, is a self-described lifelong liberal who supports same-sex “marriage.”)
He writes, “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.”
He adds, “Whatever the situation at an individual clinic, accusing professionals from across the country who provide treatment for fully informed persons seeking to change their sexual orientation of perpetrating a fraud serves only to stigmatize the professional and shame the patient.”
Gov. Christie has now become party to government intrusion on doctor-patient relationships, thereby serving as a useful pawn of the gay activist agenda, perhaps to his temporary political gain.
But when common sense and compassion prevail again, Gov. Christie’s decision will only serve to stigmatize and shame him.
Michael Brown is author of The Real Kosher Jesus and host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network. He is also president of FIRE School of Ministry and director of the Coalition of Conscience. Follow him at AskDrBrown on Facebook or @drmichaellbrown on Twitter.
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