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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: 4035
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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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 27.
#1. To: Willie Green (#0)
(Edited)
Ah but is the therapy mandatory to attend? Very, very doubtful. Obola's just trying to make an issue out a non-issue. If you can't win the argument with facts try to baffle with bullschitt. (Besides if the therapy works some of his voting constituents would have fewer "victims" to choose from on Fri/Sat nights).
The kid doesn't have any choice if he/she is a minor in the custody of ignorant & abusive parents.
In less than a year, the parents would have been powerless. And this kid could have alleged abuse or just run away. Or petitioned a court for emancipation and lived in foster care for a year.
Or Child Protective Services could've intervened and the kid would still be alive today. There ain't no need to torment and abuse the kid just because he/she was created queer.
I notice you're desperately clinging to your born-queer notions. Regardless, this kid killed himself for nothing. He had a lot of choices. I'm not convinced this was a suicide. Maybe he was out trolling for a ride and got hit and some little shemale buddy faked up a suicide note to get their 15 minutes of fame. Lots of fake "victims" out there.
Not all of them, but many. However, I suppose that many others could be suffering some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder if they were abused at a young age by perverted parents, older siblings, a babysitter or some other "trusted" pervert. But either way (or both), it's still not the kid's fault.
You should realize that the gay gene has been proven mythical over and over and that the orginator of the idea is discredited as a mediocre and dishonest researcher? Teh Gays had better hope that no one ever finds a gay gene because that would be the end of gays in one generation. People wanting to have a baby also want to have grandchildren. Including the most dedicated Religious Right pro-lifers who would flip on the abortion issue if they knew they could guarantee no gay offspring.
Just because I said that I believe that "some are born that way," doesn't mean that it has to be genetic. I'm well aware that (so far) the "gay gene" hasn't been found yet. But my best guess is that it could be some kind of abnormal development, maybe due to vitamin deficiency and/or complex chemical/hormonal imbalance. Who knows why? But there are always a small percentage of kids (very small percentage) that you can tell are gonna turn out to be effeminate little mama's boys.... or girls who're gonna play middle linebacker for Notre Dame (if the Catholic Church would let them.)
I'm thinking its chemical. However I doubt the the gay community and all its liberal supporters want to find a cure... because a "cure" would indicate an illness.
Yeah, I agree with that, although I'd be pretty skeptical of any kind of "cure" anyway... I'm pretty sure that once the damage is done, it'd be almost impossible to undo... I just don't trust any of them at all. Stop tinkering with other people's thoughts... Even if I don't agree with them, NOBODY has the right to force a "cure" on them.
OTOH, government has no place banning the attempt to help a confused individual, uncoil thoughts they recognize as "wrong", and help them live as they wish....as heterosexuals. Just because the psychological fashion of today says homosexuals are born that way and should not and cannot be changed, does not make it a fact. First do no harm. Surgically and chemically altering a human being to be something they most assuredly ARE NOT harms them, I don't know how the other side of the argument can be presented with a straight face.
There are no replies to Comment # 27. End Trace Mode for Comment # 27.
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#4. To: CZ82 (#1)
(Edited)
Ah but is the therapy mandatory to attend? Very, very doubtful.
#5. To: Willie Green (#4)
#6. To: TooConservative (#5)
And living a happy, productive (even though somewhat strange & bizarre) life.
#7. To: Willie Green (#6)
There ain't no need to torment and abuse the kid just because he/she was created queer.
#13. To: TooConservative (#7)
I notice you're desperately clinging to your born-queer notions.
And I don't believe that there's any kind of psychological treatment (religious or other) that can "correct" their thinking and make them "normal" again. There simply isn't any "cure" for that. The best that can be done for them is to be compassionate and accept them for who they are. No sense tormenting them over something that's not their fault.
#14. To: Willie Green (#13)
#21. To: TooConservative (#14)
ou should realize that the gay gene has been proven mythical over and over and that the orginator of the idea is discredited as a mediocre and dishonest researcher?
Why? I honestly don't know.... But it's not their fault... for some unknown reason, they were just born that way.
#22. To: Willie Green (#21)
I'm well aware that (so far) the "gay gene" hasn't been found yet. But my best guess is that it could be some kind of abnormal development, maybe due to vitamin deficiency and/or complex chemical/hormonal imbalance.
#25. To: GrandIsland (#22)
However I doubt the the gay community and all its liberal supporters want to find a cure... because a "cure" would indicate an illness.
Some psychiatrists/psycholgists might be on the right track as far as what causes the malady... many others simply have a bunch of crackpot New Age theories... and their "cures" involve heavy doses of unnatural drugs or lobotomy whatever...
The human mind is complex, and I don't think science is anywhere near developing an ethical/moral way to "cure" "improper" thinking...
#27. To: Willie Green (#25)
Nobody has a right to force a "cure" on them.
Replies to Comment # 27.
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