Category Archives: Therapy Ban

Equality Act Lawsuit

3/21/2022

Dr. David Pickup, a psychotherapist, MA, LMFT and a former LGBTQ activist, Reverend Daren Mehl, the President of Voice Of The Voiceless and an ex-gay, Reverend Stephen Black, the executive director of First Stone Ministries and an ex-gay activist, Greg Quinlan, the executive director of the Center For Garden State Family and an ex-gay lobbyist, Pastor Penkoski, senior Pastor of Warriors for Christ, and Chris Sevier, founder of De Facto Attorneys General, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against President Joe Biden, Sen. Jeff Merley (OR), Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), Chairman Richard Durbin (IL), and Rep. Cicilline (RI), and Speaker Pelosi for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief pursuant to 42 USC § 1983 for violating the Establishment Clause, Free Speech Clause, and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and for declaratory relief pursuant to 28 USC § 2201 for violating their Clause 3 Article VI oath of office in the United States Constitution by the act of creating, introducing, endorsing, promoting, favoring, respecting, and threatening to enact the Equality Act, which is unconstitutional on its face.

Rep. Cicilline is from Rhode Island and is the prime author of the bill.
The case has been assigned to Trump-appointed Judge McFadden, and the docket number is 1:22-cv-859. 

Summary of the argument: The fundamental argument in this action for permanent injunctive relief is that in view of the sworn testimonies of ex-gays, medical experts, licensed theologians, and persecuted Christians, sexual orientation and gender identity are orthodoxies, ideologies, and doctrines that amount to a series of unproven faith-based assumptions and naked assertions that are implicitly religious and inseparably linked to the religion of secular humanism. The US Supreme Court already established secular humanism is a religion for the purpose of the first amendment in cases like Torcaso v. Watkins; accordingly, for the defendants to introduce and attempt to enact and enforce the Equality Act – and all similar policies – violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because (1) such government action lacks a primary secular purpose, (2) constitutes an indefensible legal weapon against non-observers of the religion of secular humanism, and (3) serves to excessively entangle our government with the religion of secular humanism. We will come at the Biden Administration as hard as possible for good cause explained in the attached verified complaint.

Why did I choose to sue the President, Speaker of the House, and Senate Majority leader to stop the Equality Act? Because it is unconstitutional and will criminalize Christian ministry, an abridgement of my First Amendment rights. Because LGBTQ is a cult belief system, not an immutable human trait. Because the US Government must not entangle itself with those secular humanist beliefs and force them on every American. Because for decades the American people have been lied to about sexuality. Because the majority of LGBTQ ‘science’ is fake and biased, their ‘research’ is fake and biased. Because no one is born gay, and orientation is fluid and change is possible. Because the belief being ‘born gay is perfect’ and ‘you cannot change’ are false religious beliefs which I believe will lead someone to hell, eternal separation from their Creator, a loving God. Because the tyranny of the LGBTQ lobby is a bully system used to recruit allies to groom children into their religious system.

Why did I choose to act with this lawsuit? Because people are being robbed of their human dignity. Calling men women in the name of ‘transgender’ religious beliefs is robbing those men of their dignity. When someone is ‘identified’ as LGBTQ, they are being robbed of their humanity. They have much greater potential as they were created by their Creator with intention and purpose, of which is evident in Natural Law. But BECAUSE the government is forcing us to recognize people as LGBTQ, the government is forcing us to dehumanize an entire ‘community’ of people.

People are not LGBTQ by nature, but by belief. I once believed I was gay, and then Jesus set me free when He revealed the truth to me. My belief system now tells me that those who identify as ‘LGBTQ’ are bound to sin, to lies, to death, to dehumanizing identity and behaviors. My belief system tells me that to sodomize another man is sin, an abomination, because it devalues the humanity and humiliates that man. My belief system tells me that to cut off your penis and testicles and implant breasts so you can identify as a woman is very much dehumanizing that man. My belief system tells me that to let a woman cut off her breasts in the name of transgender rights is to hate that woman and the dignity she has as an image bearer of God.

My belief system says that sodomizing another man is not love, because love does no harm to it’s neighbor, love is not unbecoming. And that is what LGBTQ belief system is, it is unbecoming of their humanity, and to affirm it is to deny the greater humanity defined by our Creator. Our Creator made us male and female. Our Creator gave us bodies which bear the image of Himself. Our Creator gave us the gift of life, to be able to reproduce image bearers of God.

Yet the LGBTQ cult belief system says that there is no God, or rather you are your own God, and you can live as any ‘gender’ you can imagine, or assert yourself to be. The LGBTQ cult belief system is viciously set against the testimony of Jesus Christ delivering people out of their ‘community’. I use the word cult because they lie, bully, and manipulate people into their ‘community’ as well as work to destroy anyone who leaves or says you can leave their ‘community.’

I have a higher view of the person who identifies as ‘LGBTQ’ than they do themselves. And the US Constitution gives me the inalienable right to speak and testify of the truth. I believe they were created male or female, and for the purposes to glorify God, to be in relationship with our Creator through Jesus Christ, and even to reproduce image bearers of God on the Earth through natural means. And the Equality Act would prevent me from speaking of the truth, of my belief system, and would force me to participate in the lies and death that is the LGBTQ cult system.

Here is the lawsuit
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K-LfTw66XHqXdiEqBUWUskeMQ30rbIl4/view?usp=sharing

Update: 4/1/2022 The federal judge has approved the lawsuit and so my statement is officially received and added to the lawsuit along with all the attachments. The statement is updated here and attachments added.

Here is my statement:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/10qz8ZB-5ZWx2n0lKfc6_WJwtnsgpSPPC/view?usp=sharing

All attachments can be found in this folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yCr7kFBbJpkZCZ9dEEmVDaPPMVD6kPWM

What kind of stunt is it to sue before a bill becomes law?

This isn’t a stunt, this is a mechanism of law to prevent harm before it happens. In Minnesota, this occurred successfully when The State of Minnesota had potential legislation in the Minnesota Human Rights bill, which would have forced creative organizations such as Telescope Media Group to film sodomite unions and provide creative films of the event. This went against their religious convictions. The Eighth Circuit ruled against Minnesota, saying the law would violate their First Amendment rights.

Telescope-Media-Group-vs-MN

Remember – the LGBTQ community is one built around a cult belief system, one based in licentiousness, and as our Founding Fathers knew, liberty dies in licentiousness. Where LGBTQ “rights” are sought it will consume our freedom.

Note that in 2005, PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays) sued Montgomery County Public Schools to prevent LGBTQ indoctrination, that is they used the establishment rule against the school district and they won. The precedent has been set.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/maryland/mddce/8:2005cv01194/130093/14/

Pfox2005Download

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Daren Mehl is President of Voice of the Voiceless. To support Voice of the Voiceless, please visit https://www.voiceofthevoiceless.info/donate

Voice of the Voiceless testifies about the harms of MN HF2156

On March 2nd, 2022, Voice of the Voiceless President Daren Mehl and board member Andrew Rodriguez testified at the Minnesota House of Representatives related to the Minnesota House Bill HF2156 introduced by Democrat Representative Athena Hollins (DFL) of St. Paul. The bill is described as “Conversion therapy with children and vulnerable adults prohibited, medical assistance coverage prohibited, and misrepresentation of conversion therapy services or products prohibited.”

In giving testimony in a Minnesota legislative hearing, Voice of the Voiceless President Daren Mehl gave testimony about the harms of “conversion therapy” bans, and called out the unconstitutional abridgement of free speech and religious practice. Conversion therapy bans establish a state religion, specifically one that adopts the tenets of the LGBTQ cult religious beliefs. It forces parents to affirm the lie that their children are not the sex they are born as, and that people are born gay and cannot change. The LGBTQ religious jihad against ex-gay Christians by necessity of their religious views, denies their very existence of our exLGBTQ community, the Christians and others who have left the LGBTQ community and no longer are romantically or sexually attracted to the same sex, and have desisted from a transgender identity.

A large portion of the narrative behind ‘conversion therapy bans’ are the demonic lies (1 Timothy 4:1) that people are born gay, and that they cannot change. This of course denies God’s created order of everyone being heterosexual by design and the ability of the human mind to adapt, heal, and change, and the powerful work of redemption and sanctification Jesus does in His disciples. It also attempts to eradicate OUR EXLGBTQ community.

Today we heard many ‘experts’ claim that it is impossible to change sexual orientation or to detransition from being transgender. However, there were many of us who testified of being changed and restored. What sticks out as particularly harmful is how this kind of legislation comes with the explicit denial of the (ex-LGBT) Christian community. Even though we do exist, the LGBTQ lobby and their supports blatantly say we do not exist. It seems by necessity to keep their illogical narrative afloat that they must deny that we exist or their legislation and religious beliefs are made out to be an obvious error and harmful to us and others.

Mehl was particularly concerned about the infringement of parental rights because the language of the legislation requires that parents and therapists affirm the transgender identity of a child, regardless if the parent believes it is not authentic to who the child is. Mehl is a licensed minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and shared a very tragic story of a parent whose child was ‘transgendered’ behind the parents back at school.

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

Mehl pointed out the Constitutional crisis we are in at this time. When elected officials knowingly and brazenly break their oath to uphold The Constitution, with the example of his (former) representative Bierman boldly proclaiming his desire to stifle free speech and religious speech, specifically the testimony of redemption and sanctification by faith in Jesus Christ. Representative Bierman doubles down on his Constitutional oath breaking. Here is the exchange.

LEGISLATION PASSED COMMITTEE

The horrendous piece of legislation HF2156 that was passed through committee today on party lines (Democrats Yay, Republicans Nay) is harmful to the Christian community we are called to minister to when licensed therapy is necessary. When working with individuals in pastoral care situations, it sometimes becomes clear someone is suffering from past traumatic sexual abuse or other significant events in their life that requires licensed talk therapy practitioners, and so we would refer for additional care.

LICENSED THERAPY AT RISK

It is often times the right thing to refer for the mental health and spiritual growth of the individual. However, in good conscience, we cannot refer to a licensed therapist who would knowingly work against the best interest of the Christian disciple by affirming them in a false identity other than what God planned for them.

Because every person holds a religious worldview bias, licensed therapists included, it is necessary to know that a referral therapist would be willing to allow a Christian disciple their self directed goals of diminishing sinful behavior or seeking to align their behaviors to their beliefs.

Board member Andrew Rodriguez testifies that the research used by the LGBTQ community are weak retrospectives and there is much research that is not being presented or acknowledged.

This legislation would prevent any referral to licensed therapy because every therapist would have to deny the Christian clients goal of seeking their authentic identity as created by God. It would also discriminate against Christian therapists by forcing them into a LGBTQ religious belief system which denies our Creator. It would be precluding them from working in a direction of their clients choosing, deny parents’ rights to direct their children in medical and spiritual care, and prohibit access to therapy based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

CONSUMER FRAUD LANGUAGE

On a final note, this bill is particularly dangerous to the rights of Agape First Ministries (and churches in Minnesota) to host our conferences and sell our discipleship materials in Minnesota. The language in the bill infringes on our Constitutional rights by prohibiting what they call promotion, sales, services of ‘conversion therapy’, which they’ve made clear includes our ministry conferences, books, and pastoral care sessions.

MORE INFO

Voice of the Voiceless encourages everyone who loves their neighbor and desires to love God to write to their Minnesota representatives, senators, and even the Governor of Minnesota, and let them know your concerns about the harm the bill will have it is passed into law.

Bill Information: (It exists as two bills, different numbers in House and Senate)

HF2156 on Minnesota House of Representatives website
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=House&f=HF2156&ssn=0&y=2021

SF1871 in Minnesota Senate Website
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?f=SF1871&y=2021&ssn=0&b=senate

The full hearing can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gSlcDYZmKs

The minutes from the Thirteenth Meeting is here:
https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/Committees/minutes/92012/89537

Note: Only Democrats voted for this bill. Only Republicans voted against it.

The full audio can be downloaded here:
http://ww2.house.leg.state.mn.us/audio/mp3ls92/prehealth030222.mp3

All of the information provided as testimony for the hearing is provided here:

Audio & Video Archive – Minnesota House of Representatives

Daren Mehl Written Testimony:
Daren Mehl Testimony – Minnesota HF2156

Daren Mehl Spoken Testimony:
Daren Mehl Spoken Testimony HF2156

Voice of the Voiceless Public Statement
(This was not provided to the committee due to a procedural technicality resulting in the censorship of many emails sent in for testimony. We provided it here for the record.)

Voice of the Voiceless is a Minnesota non-profit educating the public on the rights of former LGBTQ individuals to speak of their faith in Jesus Christ in the public square, of the healing they received through the testimony and power of Jesus Christ, of being healed to from homosexuality to their natural heterosexual self. Voice of the Voiceless calls on the government of Minnesota to treat us with equal dignity and respect as other citizens of Minnesota, and to uphold our Constitutional right to free speech and practice of our faith in Jesus Christ.

We recognize the harm that HF2156 could do to our community to seek talk therapy through licensed services to align our behaviors with our religious convictions. We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to our inalienable rights, our Constitutional rights, and 1964 Civil Rights, specifically of free speech, practice of religion, and the inalienable right to direct our children as we are convicted to do by our Creator.
We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to parents of children who may be confused by popular culture which regularly promotes rebellion against the Creator in the name of living as LGBTQ, in denial of the purpose of ones life as taught in the Bible. We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to prevent parents from helping guide children in the faith of their family as well as interfering in the parents right in making the best medical choices for their children.

We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to our children and community by the government forced promotion of the LGBTQ religious practice of denial of our Creator, violation of the 1st Commandment to have no other God’s, and rebellion against your parents which is a violation of the 4th Commandment to honor father and mother. We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to prevent our community of former LGBTQ individuals and their ability to evangelize and disciple their friends out of the LGBTQ community. Effectively the state would protect the LGBTQ community from the speech and religious practice of Christians. We recognize the harm of HF2156 whereby the state is forcing Christians to affirm the abomination of sodomy as part of the Creator’s intent for mankind. We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to to force Christians to affirm the false belief that people are born gay and cannot change, resulting in the false “gay celibate” doctrines robbing people of the hope to be healed and restored to heterosexuality and marriage to the complimentary sex. We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to the Christian community at large, The Church, whereby the state effectively is precluding any discipleship of individuals who themselves desire to leave the LGBTQ cult practices of sodomy or transgenderism in the name of ‘fraud’, ‘homophobia’, ‘transphobia’.

We recognize the harm that HF2156 would do to our community by creating a tyranny of LGBTQ cult religious beliefs, in rejection of the Creator, who has blessed this country and prospered our families.

We also reject the false science of the LGBTQ lobby which has supported the false pretenses for HF2156. It is biased, grossly false, and unethically promoted.

 

‘Yes, Christians believe in hell’: campaigners respond to conversion therapy activist

From the article showing the LGBTQ lobby is definitely trying to rewrite or ban Christian Orthodoxy:

Anderson explained that they initially tried to convince him to pursue heterosexual relationships, before later imploring him to embrace a life of celibacy in obedience to the Bible.

He said both attempting to change someone’s sexuality and asking them to ‘suppress’ it should be considered conversion therapy, adding that “helping someone to live within the rules of their religion” can cross over into conversion therapy.

He said: “In terms of the suppression – being gay but not doing gay things – we would argue that ought to be covered by the ban if someone is trying to suppress or deny or not act on their sexuality.”

Ban Conversion Therapy, the activist group of which Anderson is a member, is campaigning for a ban on prayer, preaching, pastoral support and even parenting which asks Christians to live in accordance with the biblical view of sexuality and gender.

Continue the article on The Christian Institute
https://www.christian.org.uk/news/yes-christians-believe-in-hell-campaigners-respond-to-conversion-therapy-activist/ 

Responding to Censorship of ex-LGBT Ministries and Allies

Daren Mehl is joined by Jeremy Schwab, founder of Joel 2:25 Ministries who today, like a dozen other ministries and allies, had their Facebook page removed without warning. The ex-LGBTQ community is the canary in the mine of Christian persecution. The LGBTQ lobby is probably the largest influencer running the narratives of anti-Christian testimony, anti-Christian discipleship, and anti-Christian evangelism.

Daren and Jeremy go through several articles the LGBTQ lobby has put out as targets their community for erasure by big tech. Daren shows videos that this censorship in the name of ‘conversion therapy bans’ has always targeted the Church and Christians. And there is crazy amount of evidence that change is possible, even a leading LESBIAN researcher is trying to end the ‘born gay, can’t change’ narrative.

Links to other videos include:
https://bit.ly/LDExplains01
https://bit.ly/SBProxy01 (Long version)

Censorship of X-OUT-LOUD and IFTCC