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Title: Obama calls for end to 'gay conversion therapies'
Source:
BBC
URL Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32227353
Published: Apr 9, 2015
Author: N/A
Post Date: 2015-04-09 05:17:32 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 4488
Comments: 34
US President Barack Obama has condemned psychiatric therapies designed to "repair" gay, lesbian and transgender youth. Mr Obama's statement was in response to an online petition calling for a ban on conversion therapies. It gained over 120,000 signatures in three months. The petition was inspired by Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year-old transgender youth who committed suicide in December. Some conservative groups and religious doctors support conversion therapy. "We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer youth," White House adviser Valerie Jarrett wrote in response to the petition. "As part of our dedication to protecting America's youth, this administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors." Counselling and prayer is used in conversion therapy to help some Christians deal with gay urges. "We believe that change is still possible. People go to therapy because they can change, because it really does work," David Pickup, a family therapist in California and Texas, told the New York Times. "We help people grow into their authentic selves." But mental health groups and gay rights activists say it can increase the risk of depression or suicide. The US states of California and New Jersey have banned the practices. But other conservative states such as Oklahoma are considering legislation to protect the therapies from legal challenges. While the White House is not explicitly calling for congressional legislation to ban the therapies nationwide, Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, welcomed Mr Obama's statement. "Having President Obama and the weight of the White House behind efforts to ban conversion therapy is so critical in the fight for transgender and LGBT young people," Ms Keisling said. In the letter posted on Tumblr, Ms Alcorn said she killed herself after years of struggling with her strict Christian parents' refusal to acknowledge her true identity as a female. She ended her note with a plea: "The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren't treated the way I was... My death needs to mean something. Fix society. Please."
Poster Comment: I don't know how or why, but I do believe that some people are simply born "that way" and it is NOT their fault. That's simply the way that God created them. And I don't think that there's any kind of "therapy" that can change the way they are. And it is both wrong and cruel and sinful to subject them to such psychological abuse to try to make them change.
"The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren't treated the way I was," Leelah Alcorn wrote before her death 
Vigils were held after Ms Alcorn committed suicide in December
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#19. To: Willie Green (#0)
I'm just going to say it Willie. I don't consider you a christian. You say God made people like that so he could send them to hell for their amusement. THat is messed up Willie. We all have choices. You also come out against free speech here. Willie you are the problem with America. It's you Willie. It is people who have the stupid ideas that you have. Willie it is you that we are fighting. It is people like you that we must destroy. By destroy I mean destroy their credibility. Destroy their lies. Destroy their stupidity. Destroy their ignorance. Destroy their credibility to influence other people You don't even act like a traditional American. You act like a foreign provocateur that wants to bring us down. Thanks for posting here Willie. I honestly appreciate it. Because you provide and example of what the enemy thinks. I like you Willie. But you are so damned WILLIEingly ignorant.
No, those are YOUR words, Stone. Not mine, not God's... YOURS. I honestly don't know why God created them that way, just like I don't know why other children suffer birth defects like club feet or cleft palates or whatever... Nevertheless, gays & trannies are God's children too...
#24. To: Willie Green (#23)
(Edited)
Neither are you, Pope Willie.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestI don't know how or why, but I do believe that some people are simply born "that way" and it is NOT their fault. That's simply the way that God created them. And I don't think that there's any kind of "therapy" that can change the way they are. And it is both wrong and cruel and sinful to subject them to such psychological abuse to try to make them change
#23. To: A K A Stone (#19)
You say God made people like that so he could send them to hell for their amusement. THat is messed up Willie. We all have choices.
And I don't think God is gonna send them to hell just because AKA Stone said so...
You're not the one who gets to decide who gets through the pearly gates... THAT I am quite certain.
Replies to Comment # 23. You're not the one who gets to decide who gets through the pearly gates... THAT I am quite certain.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 23.
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