Comments

1
Bad idea.
2
@1 - [citation needed]

Go Patty Murray!
3
@2
Have you read the text?
I found
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-cong…
which of course may not be the one Murray is using.
4
As noble as the intent may be, it's constitutionally repugnant.

Americans enjoy freedom of assembly, religion, and that includes any "conversion" therapy that society may find offensive.
5
@4, I'm aiming in that direction.
The wording is unclear.
One possible scenario (as an example):
Adult person to go to a therapist and say "I think I might be X and I don't want to be" and it would be illegal for therapist to help.
6
It seems like if an adult wants to consent to this kind of procedure, they outta be able to do it. But it gets a lot more ambiguous when its a minor being compelled by their parents. And unless you want to call children "property", a lot of the standard libertarian bromides run up on the rocks in that context.
7
Children clearly should be protected from such bullshit but if it's an adult who willingly wants to do this? Whatever gets them to blow their load I suppose.
8
Why do all these conversion therapies seek to transform normal people into dumb white trash?

Let's invent conversion from stupid christian to educated modern human - we can call it "Elementary education".

Probably won't catch on.
9
@6 - Yes, that's a good point.
11
@10
I can see your excited but no idea in what direction.
Try using simple words and not such cleverness.
13
I read the bill that @3 helpfully linked to and it does seem unusually broad.

I also have to wonder just how common it is for Congress to legislate concerning specific therapies. I know we have an FDA and all that, but we've also got a massive supplement and herbal remedies industry that is at least as questionable as conversion therapy. Nobody really seems to object too much to that even if the herbs in question are potentially dangerous, probably because of the money at stake.

This strikes me as pretty much just a full-on pander. The bill is going nowhere and everyone knows it. It literally accomplishes nothing except to shore up a little support for the politicians signing on to it.
15
So @4 is pro-genital mutilation. Got it.
16
So @15 pulls out yet another non-sequituor. We're all tired of it.
17
People can believe whatever they like, and still not be allowed to engage in fraudulent commerce and harmful medical practice. If I want to sell holy arsenic water as a cure for infant colic, I'm sure I can find religious buyers willing to believe they should pay me to dose their children with arsenic.

When we go past useless, to actual harm to minors, it's not unreasonable to regulate the commerce.
18
@17
But proposal does not just apply to minors.
You do understand that.
I hope.
19
@4 I'm in agreement. And it's not like this process won't continue, it'll just be pushed underground, or they'll be euphamisms for it; and frankly I bet you tons of gay kids wish they weren't gay and will cling to any specious arrangement that promises them a "normal" life, and many of those kids will have parents that want the same thing.
20
Sportlandia @ 19 says, “I bet you tons of gay kids wish they weren't gay.”
I bet so too, and that’s because of the hostile culture and environment many face.
A tolerating society is not “encouraging homosexuality” but rather acknowledging the fact that people are different and have the right to live as who they are.

“Conversion therapy” is part of the guilt, oppression and hateful mechanisms that only sweep the issues under the carpet. When oppressed people have no other choices but go underground, and some engage in unhealthy or even abusing behaviors as a result, moralists are quick to portray all gay culture and activities as such.

BTW, is there a non-religious “conversion therapy”?



21
Sooooo- do we get a free toaster if we come out? Not that anyone can afford the cost of bread in Seattle, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Please wait...

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