Truth Wins Out! Illinois Becomes Fifth State to Reject Change Therapy Ban Bill

Education Campaign from Ex-Gays and Equality and Justice For All Key in Victory

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Anti-ex-gay activist Wayne Besen failed miserably to convince his own liberal-dominated legislature in Illinois to ban therapy for minor clients with unwanted SSA.

Late yesterday afternoon, the Illinois House voted 44 to 51 to reject HB 5569, a bill that would have prohibited minors with unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA) from receiving Sexual Orientation Change Effort (SOCE) therapy from a licensed mental health practitioner. Illinois became the fifth state in a row to reject this legislation, following Maryland, Minnesota, Washington, and Virginia, whose legislatures also voted down similar bills in 2014.

“It’s clear that even the most progressive states do not want to pass laws that take away the rights of individuals when the foundation of such legislation is based on lies and misinformation,” commented Christopher Doyle, President of Voice of the Voiceless. “There is not one research study published in the scientific peer-reviewed literature that has studied the outcomes of minors undergoing SOCE therapy – any attempt to ban clients from receiving help for unwanted SSA is pure political propaganda from gay activists.”

The Illinois Family Institute (who worked hard with ex-gays from Equality And Justice For All, the only non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the rights of ex-gay and clients with unwanted SSA) to educate legislators in the state to reject this bill, wrote the following of the bill’s lesbian sponsor, Kelly Cassidy: “In a remarkable display of rhetorical excess, Cassidy argued that minors who desire to change their unwanted SSA through counseling are ‘horribly and humiliatingly abused.’ It boggles the mind that Cassidy would expect her colleagues to believe that every counselor who helps minors with unwanted SSA ‘horribly and humiliatingly’ abuses their young clients. Further, Cassidy expected her colleagues to believe her without any conclusive studies to support such an outlandish claim.”

But this type of behavior is commonplace for gay activists. For example, last year a transgender activist in New Jersey claimed she was sent to a “conversion therapy torture camp” in Ohio that used electroshock therapy to zap her from gay to straight. An investigation published at WorldNetDaily.com found the entire “testimony” was a hoax taken from a 1997 movie starring drag queen RuPaul. Similarly a witness testifying in a January committee hearing in Washington said that a licensed therapist forced a child to watch pornography while in an ice bath so that the client would associate sexual arousal with pain. However, when questioned after the hearing, the woman refused to provide the name of the therapist and when it happened; nor was she willing to do any research to help uncover whether, if it had in fact happened, it was a licensed therapist.

“Legislatures around the country are now waking up to the reality that ex-gays are a fact and gay activists’ stories of ‘therapy torture’ are fiction,” commented Doyle. “We applaud the many lawmakers in Illinois who met with ex-gays, heard their stories of change, and refused to listen to the lies of anti-ex-gay activists like Wayne Besen, who is now headquartered in Chicago and failed miserably in his own liberal-dominated state to get this legislation passed. It goes to show that truth really does win out – when ex-gays speak up, politicians listen.”

 

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Voice of the Voiceless is the only anti-defamation league defending the rights of former homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions, and their families. For more information, visit: www.VoiceoftheVoiceless.info