Psychological Torture Is Okay

When it comes to beating out the gay or trans is OK if it is done in Utah.

Amendments drastically change a bill to end conversion therapy, which seeks to turn LGBTQ children straight. Advocates are fuming.
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Bethany Rodgers
March 5, 2019

The sponsor of a proposed ban on conversion therapy in Utah watched colleagues dismantle his bill on Tuesday and replace it with an alternative that he says would do nothing to stop the widely discredited practice of trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ youth.

"This bill, substitute 4, just to make it clear, will not prevent conversion therapy," Rep. Craig Hall told the House Judiciary Committee.

But the committee opted to go with the substitute, which the majority of members said would strike a balance between allowing therapists to speak freely and protecting LGBTQ youth from abusive practices.

Guess which party introduced the bill and guess what party stripped the bill?

Troy Williams, executive director of Equality Utah, left the morning hearing fuming about the committee’s decision. The majority of the committee, he said, sided with “quack therapists” and “snake oil salesmen” by approving a version of the bill that would be easily sidestepped by practitioners of “conversion therapy.”

The legislator who added the amendments said,

Hall, R-West Valley City, said that time remains in the legislative session to have “good discussions” with lawmakers and potentially reinsert stronger language into the bill. As initially proposed, the legislation, HB399, would have prohibited state-licensed therapists from practices aimed at changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of a minor.
[…]
The substitute bill by Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, focuses on prohibiting practices that cause pain or physical distress to a minor patient. It also would ban claims that a therapy could fully and permanently reverse a child’s sexual orientation and assertions that such a change is necessary.

There is no discussion needed, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics all reject conversion/reparative therapy saying it is harmful to children… what is to discuss?

“…pain or physical distress to a minor patient…” so physical torture is out but psychological torture is okay.

As for infringing on the therapist “free speech…”

Federal courts have upheld conversion therapy bans in other states, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals of these judicial rulings, he said.

And of course anything done to us is fair game.

Lisonbee’s substitute bill does not bar conversion therapy aimed at changing gender identity, leaving transgender youth unprotected, Rosky said. And it would let conversion therapists continue to use the same techniques, as long as they don’t guarantee their clients a certain outcome, he said.

That thumping noise you hear is the bus driven by the Republicans running over us.