Oregon, Iowa and Colorado are all working to pass bills to ban gay conversion therapy for minors, and it’s about time the rest of America did the same.
The only places in the U.S. that have banned gay conversion therapy are California, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
For those who don’t know, gay conversion therapy is a form of therapy LGBT people go through when society pressures them to try to change their sexual orientation.
LGBT adults have to consent to the treatment, but people under 18 don’t have any legal rights when it comes to conversion therapy.
Despite the harmful consequences that occur when parents reject their LGBT children, parents can use religious liberty as an excuse to do almost anything they want to try to make their children straight.
Parents are protected under the First Amendment to psychologically harm their children in the name of religion, but LGBT teenagers have no legal protections. Because of that, LGBT teenagers are more likely to commit suicide, have depression and even be homeless.
It’s widely believed that these treatments don’t work, and most of the methods used for converting sexual orientation are physically and psychologically abusive. This can cause depression and add the pressure to commit suicide.
Recently, Vice magazine produced a documentary on gay conversion therapy. The reporters went to conversion camps around the country and talked to experts on both sides.
The founder of gay conversion therapy, Joseph Nicolosi, was among the experts interviewed.
“Everyone is heterosexual,” Nicolosi said in the documentary. “The idea that some people are naturally homosexual or naturally gay is just a social construct.”
Nicolosi has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and wrote four books on conversion therapy. He believes people can change LGBT people’s natural sexual orientations.
Unfortunately, Nicolosi doesn’t seem to understand the difference between sexual orientation and sexual behavior. It’s completely possible for gay men to have sex with women, but that doesn’t make them straight. Sex doesn’t always equate to attraction, and that’s the main flaw in his beliefs.
Nicolosi’s beliefs also hold no ground in modern psychology. The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973. Therefore, any attempt to change one’s sexual orientation is unethical because it doesn’t hold any scientific or psychological ground.
But Bible thumpers don’t care about facts. They’re convinced anyone can be straight with enough psychological counseling. This mindset is prevalent here in the Bible Belt.
A man named James Swift from Monroe, Louisiana, posted a video on YouTube of his experience in a gay conversion camp.
He was 14-years-old when his priest recommended that his parents send him to a gay conversion camp. He couldn’t go until he turned 15-years-old, so his parents tried to change his sexual orientation every day until his 15th birthday. Swift didn’t have a say in whether he went.
On Swift’s birthday, two men woke him up in the middle of the night and took him from his house. He asked where they were taking him.
“Shut up, faggot,” one of the men allegedly said.
When Swift finally got to the camp, they put him in a room full of other teenagers and told them to not talk.
We all know what happens when you tell a group of 15-year-olds to be quiet. Swift asked someone next to him what was going on.
He said the leaders of the conversion camp took him away and tied his hands over his head. Swift said they beat him with a Bible, and left him there for a day.
Later at the camp, according to Swift, they used zip-ties to tie him to a chair. The camp leaders took a cotton swab and wedged it under his fingernails until it went all the way down to his cuticles. They did this to all of his fingernails and toenails.
Eventually, the camp sent Swift home. They said Satan had too big a grip on him and there was nothing more they could do. Instead of his parents filing charges against the camp for abusing their son, they said they were disappointed in him.
Swift’s case may have been one of the worst, but the fact that parents can send their children to these types of facilities under the guise of religious freedom is absurd.
Religious and parental rights shouldn’t trump the safety of children, but our laws allow just that.
What’s worse is that Oklahoma is trying to protect the unethical practice under a new law. The new law says the state can’t prohibit or restrict the practice of conversion therapy. It also protects parents who want that counseling for their children.
It always amazes me what people can get away with in the name of religion, and it’s time to put an end to that. Religious and parental rights shouldn’t give people the right to be abusive.
Cody Sibley is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Opelousas, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @CodySibley.