May 7, 2012

'This is one of the most outrageous, speech-chilling bills we have ever seen

A state senator in California – where lawmakers already demand that school children “celebrate” the life of pedophile Harvey Milk and ban any negative discussions about being “gay,” such as the short expected lifespan – now wants to ban some therapies for children entirely.

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is scheduled May 8 on SB 1172, a bill by Sen. Ted Lieu to impose state limits on what therapists can tell their patients. His proposal would require that counselors “warn” their patients about “risks” of sexual-orientation-change therapy and ban such treatment for juveniles, even if both they and their parents want it.

“I can honestly say this is one of the most outrageous, speech-chilling bills we have ever seen in California – and that’s saying a lot,” said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute.

He said the main purpose of SB 1172 is to limit the ability of psychologists, therapists and others to help adult or minor clients with sexual orientation change efforts.

The plan flatly bans the advice for minors, regardless of what the minor and his or her parents desire. It also demands a new consent form from adults that includes statements about sexual orientation with which many counselors disagree.

Ultimately, it creates essentially an open-ended civil liability for engaging in such speech.

According to Mathew McReynolds of PJI, “SB 1172 blames those who believe change is possible for gay suicides, guilt, substance abuse, relationship problems and a host of other ills.

“As if all that were not enough, the bill claims that sexually confused youth who experience ‘family rejection … face especially serious health risks’ and the state has a ‘compelling interest’ to protect their health. The logical implication from these two assertions is that the state is giving itself the power to take kids away from parents who do not affirm the kids’ sexual confusion,” he said.

McReynolds followed up with a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggesting that members consider that the United States still has the First Amendment.

“SB 1172 is blatantly unconstitutional,” he said. “We absolutely cannot allow the government to step into the counseling room or doctor’s office and clamp a hand over the mouth of a professional who is asked by a patient for help with sexual identity issues. Have our legislators completely forgotten the First Amendment? Or the right to privacy?”

The PJI analysis of the proposal noted that backers conspicuously left out sex-change counseling, “because backers believe gender is changeable, but sexual orientation is not.”

“The compelled speech and speech restrictions in SB 1172 are so extraordinary that even the California Psychological Association – which normally embraces LGBT rights – is opposed to the bill in its current form,” PJI reported.

A report on the issue from NARTH, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, said, “It was almost unbelievable to sit in this legislative committee room to hear the egregious and certainly ridiculous claims of the supporters of this bill.”

In interview with OneNewsNow, Dacus said the plan “not only gives stark penalties and liabilities against counselors and psychologists attempting to assist adults wanting or asking for therapy regarding sexual orientation issues, but it outright bans and prohibits anyone under the age of 18 to have any pro-heterosexual counseling or therapy when they are struggling with their sexual orientation.”

“Worse yet,” he said, “is if parents are caught being non-supportive of their child’s perception of homosexuality in any way, then that is deemed abuse by parents under this statute and grounds for the government to permanently take that child from their parents.”

Jeff Johnston wrote at Citizenlink, a Focus on the Family affiliate, “I am passionate about stopping the harm that would come from this bill; in this case, the political is also personal. 25 years ago I was living in California and looking for help with same-sex attractions.

“My motivation wasn’t self-hatred or pressure from a ‘hetero-normative’ society,” he said. “I believed what the Bible says and the church teaches: God made sexual expression for marriage between a man and a woman. I knew there were grave health risks to homosexual sex, and I wanted a family.”

Johnston continued, “Counseling was a huge help to me on my journey out of homosexuality; now I’m happily married, with three terrific sons.

“My marriage and children would not exist without the help and support of Christian therapists,” he said.

He asserted the bill “tramples” on the idea that people should control their own lives, instead, replacing self-determination with “the state knows what’s best.”

“Imagine a man seeking counseling for unwanted same-sex conduct. He could be engaged in extremely risky, life-threatening or even illegal behaviors, such as anonymous sex, sado-masochism, public sexual activity or sex with multiple partners. Not all of them identify as homosexual. That counselor would have to tell this man, ‘I’m sorry, but therapy to stop having sex with men you don’t know might harm you,’” he wrote.

California lawmakers have built a long reputation for promoting a free-sex atmosphere in public schools. Majority Democrats on a California state legislative committee recently killed a plan that would have cracked down on intimate relationships between school teachers and their students.

The unsuccessful Assembly Bill 1861 would have made it a felony if any teacher or employee of a public or private school “engages in a sexual relationship or inappropriate communications with a pupil.”

“This is yet another reason for conscientious parents to flee the dysfunctional, immoral, and imploding government school system for church schools and home schools, which are much safer physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually,” said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com.

“Why are Democrat legislators supporting child sex abuse? Why don’t they care about children’s immature hearts and minds being immorally manipulated and sexually seduced by public school teachers,” he continued. “It is certifiably evil that this bill to protect school children’s bodies was defeated by this Democrat-controlled committee.”

See the “big list” of female teachers who have preyed on students.

Thomasson’s group promotes the Rescue Your Child website, which encourages parents to seek out church schools or homeschooling options for their children.

His group explains that already in California’s public schools children as young as 5th and 7th grades are told they have the “individual” and “personal” right to engage in “respectful” sexual activity with anyone as long as it is consensual and that males wear a condom.

SaveCalifornia.com previously has reported on issues involving morality in public schools in California.

One recent development was the launch of the Stop SB48 coalition.

The coalition seeks the repeal of SB 48, described as a controversial mandate that requires positive portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in public school social studies and history classes. It has been widely criticized for shifting the focus from achievements and historical milestones to individuals’ sexuality.

SB48 is one of many sexual indoctrination laws in the law, critics said.

Others cited by Thomasson’s group:

• SB 543, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, “allows school staff to remove children ages 12 and up from government schools and taken off-campus for counseling sessions, without parental permission or involvement. The purpose is to permit pro-homosexuality teachers and administrators to remove sexually confused children in 6th grade and up from campus and take them to pro-homosexuality counselors who will encourage them to embrace the homosexual lifestyle.”
• ACR 82, approved by the California Legislature in 2010, “creates de facto ‘morality-free zones’ at participating schools (pre-kindergarten through public universities). Schools that become official ‘Discrimination-Free Zones’ will ‘enact procedures’ (including mandatory counseling) against students from pre-kindergarten on up who are accused of ‘hate,’ ‘intolerance,’ or ‘discrimination’.” What is the hate? Peacefully speaking or writing against the unnatural lifestyles choices of homosexuality and bisexuality.
• SB 572, signed by Schwarzenegger in 2009, establishes “Harvey Milk Day” in K-12 California public schools and community colleges. In classrooms, schools and school districts that participate, children will now be taught to admire the life and values of late homosexual activist and teen predator Harvey Milk of San Francisco the month of May.
• SB 777, signed by Schwarzenegger in 2007, prohibits all public school instruction and every school activity from “promoting a discriminatory bias” against (effectively requiring positive depictions of) transsexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality to schoolchildren as young as five years old. SB 777 means children will be taught their “gender” is a matter of choice.
• AB 394, signed by Schwarzenegger in 2007, effectively promotes transsexual, bisexual and homosexual indoctrination of students, parents and teachers via “anti-harassment” and “anti-discrimination” materials, to be publicized in classrooms and assemblies, posted on walls, incorporated into curricula on school websites, and distributed in handouts to take home.
• SB 71, signed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and implemented in 2008 through the new “sexual health” standards approved by appointees of Schwarzenegger and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, teaches children as young as 5th grade that any consensual sexual behavior is “safe” as long as you “protect” yourself with a condom, and teaches children that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality is “normal.”
• AB 1785, signed by Davis in 2000, required the California State Board of Education to alter the state curriculum frameworks to include and require “human relations education” for children in K-12 public schools, with the aim of “fostering an appreciation of the diversity of California’s population and discouraging the development of discriminatory attitudes and practices,” according to the state legislative counsel’s digest.
• AB 537, signed by Davis in 1999, permits teachers and students to openly proclaim and display their homosexuality, bisexuality or transsexuality, even permitting cross-dressing teachers, school employees and student on campus, in classrooms, and in restrooms.

SB 48 takes the state even a step beyond its demand that students in public schools every year honor Harvey Milk, a homosexual activist and reported sexual predator, as well as an advocate for Jim Jones, leader of the massacred hundreds in Jonestown, Guyana.

In honoring Milk, schools are advocating for the acceptance of what Milk sought: the entire homosexual, bisexual and cross-dressing agenda; a refusal to acknowledge sexually transmitted diseases spread by the behavior; his behavior as “a sexual predator of teenage boys, most of them runaways with drug problems”; advocacy for multiple sexual relationships at one time; and “lying to get ahead”; according to SaveCalifornia.com.

A 1982 biography of Milk tells of a 16-year-old named McKinley, who “was looking for some kind of father figure.”

“At 33, Milk was launching a new life, though he could hardly have imagined the unlikely direction toward which his new lover would pull him,” the book says.

It also states, “It would be to boyish-looking men in their late teens and early 20s that Milk would be attracted for the rest of his life.”

http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/senator-ban-gender-counseling-for-kids/print/