2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum"Pray the Gay Away"? No.
Right-wing cranks and fools havent come up with a cure yet for stupidity, greed, paranoia, bigotry, hypocrisy or even laziness. But they do think that theyve come up with a cure for something that requires no cure: homosexuality. Its called conversion therapy, and heres how it works:
In one form of conversion therapy, they attach live electrodes to your genitalia, they start showing you gay porn, and then they turn on the juice.
In another form of conversion therapy, they feed you an emetic, they turn on that gay porn (is it OK to use the phrase turn on here?), and then they wait until the emetic takes hold, and you puke all over the floor.
Heres another method: prayer. Or as they call it, spiritual intervention. They try to pray the gay away. The Religious Right has set up counseling clinics for gays, or rather against gays, that purport to cure homosexuality.
Who would be so stupid and cruel as to think that conversion therapy is a good idea? Or, more specifically, which spouse of which Member of Congress would be? That would be Rep. Michele Bachmanns husband Marcus.
Marcus Bachmann who runs a Christian counseling clinic in Minnesota that indulges in conversion therapy.
And the U.S. of A. is not the only land in which you find such things. If youre curious, you can look up the case of Pitcherskaia v. Immigration and Naturualization Service , 118 F.3d 641 (9th Cir. 1997), and see how its done in Mother Russia. There, gay students are beaten up not only by other students, but also by the school principals. Gay students are incarcerated in mental institutions, and they are treated with shock therapy. When released, they are required to continue such treatment at outpatient clinics. Other attempted cures include hypnosis and sedatives. All of this came to light when Ms. Pitcherskaia, a lesbian, sought political refuge in the United States. Fortunately for her, she was not required to undergo conversion therapy with Marcus Bachmann as a condition of entry.
The American Psychiatric Association has unequivocally condemned any psychiatric treatment based on the assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder. The Attorney General has written that a growing scientific consensus accepts that sexual orientation is a characteristic that is immutable. The World Health Organization has said that sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder. And yet in the United States, gay teenagers have been held in isolation for months, and forced to attend this conversion therapy.
Except in California. Thanks to Ted Lieu.
In 2012, State Senator Ted Lieu wrote a bill to prohibit conversation therapy for minors in California. That bill passed in the California Legislature, and was signed into law. Ted Lieu made California the first state to ban conversion therapy for minors, but hopefully not the last. That was a very important accomplishment.
Now Ted Lieu is running for Congress, and he needs your help. He is seeking the seat of Rep. Henry Waxman. Henry has served for 40 years in Congress, and yet he kept his seat last time with only 54% of the vote. Its a difficult district, its a close race, and we need Ted Lieu in Congress.
And to give you an extra little nudge, Blue America PAC has extended its drawing for Ted Lieu contributors through noon tomorrow. One lucky contributor to Ted Lieus campaign will receive the RIAA-certified Quadruple Platinum Award for Fleetwood Macs album The Dance.
So Im asking you to click below, and show your support for Ted Lieu. He had the guts to take on the Religious Right when it was the Religious Wrong, and he rescued countless children from the bigoted lie that their sexual identity was a disease that demanded a quack cure. Ted Lieu deserves our support.
Courage,
Rep. Alan Grayson
lame54
(35,138 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Be great to see California get rid of another entrenched republican. Like you noted, last time the race was close, this time the republican needs to lose. All the Ds have to do is please Vote!
Love the way Blue America PAC has a Fleetwood Mac award drawing, a great idea.