The resistance

Rep. Brian Sims is fighting to ban ‘conversion therapy’ in his state

We all know “conversion therapy” doesn’t actually achieve any kind of “conversion” and is in fact not even “therapy.” What it does do is mess people up, drive them to further harmful behavior, and line the pockets of a bunch of snake oil phony-doctors.

It’s been this way for literally decades, dating back to the days when you could supposedly “cure” homosexuality by riding a bicycle or having monkey testicles implanted in your body. Given the ridiculous history of this kind of abuse, it’s only natural that it should be banned along with drilling holes in the skull, amateur appendectomies, and using heroin for weight loss.

Out Representative Brian Sims, currently serving as in Pennsylvania (and in our fantasies, as president in 2020) just introduced a bill to ban the practice in his state. It’s about time, since every major medical organization in the country has taken a stand against it. In fact, he’s joined by the APA in putting forth his new legislation.

Forcing people into the discredited procedures can lead to sixfold increase in depression and ninefold increase in suicide ideation, Sims points out. There’s just no possible defense for this terrible anti-scientific abuse.

The best defense that anti-gay groups can muster is that parents should have authority to decide on medical treatments for their children. The only response to that: look, if you think that you need to increase your child’s risk of suicidal ideation by a factor of nine, you shouldn’t be allowed to have children at all.

Watch him discuss the move below:

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