- Mr. Cuomo’s plan relies on economic incentives meant to discourage conversion therapy’s use on young people. Insurers in New York, for instance, will now be prohibited from covering the cost of such therapy for anyone under 18.
- That action… would prohibit the use of Medicaid to pay for conversion therapy. Centers overseen by the State Office of Mental Health would also be barred from providing conversion therapy to minors, according to the governor’s office.
How does Cuomo justify prohibiting the free choice of both
parents and their children from seeking counseling for their unwanted same-sex
attraction? Cuomo charges:
- “We will not allow the misguided and the intolerant to punish L.G.B.T. young people for simply being who they are,”
Are the parents and their adolescent-teenage children “misguided?”
Does Cuomo think he knows what is best for them? The horrific consequences for
this lifestyle are undeniable – highly elevated levels of suicide, mental
illness, depression, STDs, domestic violence, shortened life, and substance
abuse. Could any therapy incur worse results!
Cuomo claims that those who administer such treatment are “intolerant
to punish L.G.B.T. young people for simply being who they are.” But how does Cuomo
know that they are “intolerant” rather than compassionate. He doesn’t. Instead,
he has employed the carefully honed rhetoric of manipulation – tarring the
opposition as “intolerant” or just haters.
Besides, are these youth really gay or are they simply going
through a period of identity confusion? They is a lot of evidence that sexual
attraction is quite fluid, rather than settled, at these ages. Why try to lock
them into a lifestyle that dooms them to a life of self-destruction! It would
seem that, in light of the horrific consequences, that almost anything should
be tried to channel the youth into more a salutary lifestyle.
If there have been some therapeutic interventions that have
been found to be unproductive or harmful, then make their failures known and
explore or promote other more promising forms of therapy.
Instead, our pundits have condemned all forms of conversion therapy. It would be like condemning all
forms of bipolar therapy because of the failure of one particular intervention.
The fact that Cuomo wants to ban all
forms of conversion therapy demonstrates, not a concern for the youth, but an
entrenched political agenda. Instead, he should fund other more hopeful ways to
address this horribly self-destructive lifestyle.
Cuomo’s sexually indulgent approach is also the approach of
the Feds:
- Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, described its [conversion therapy] “potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer youth.”
Their approach is to damn anything that might have the promise of helping youth to avoid a
life of despair.
Last year, the New York State Assembly labelled conversion
therapy a form of “professional misconduct that could put medical licenses at
risk.” But is it misconduct or is it professionally responsible to help youth
overcome what they regard as a problem? There are many indications that such
therapy can be effective:
- There are two major studies most often cited to support the potential benefits of reparation [conversion] therapy. One, originally published in book form in 2007, was conducted by Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse. A follow-up to the study, which appeared in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy in 2011, concluded not only that it was possible to change one’s homosexual orientation, but also that psychological harm was unlikely to result from the effort. (Salvo, Issue 22,34)
The Robert Spitzer study, published in 2003 in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, also offers
promise:
- After studying efforts on 200 volunteers who had experienced predominantly homosexual attractions for many years before beginning therapy, Spitzer found that, for all subjects, “there was a marked reduction [of homosexual tendencies]…not only on the three measures of overt behavior and sexual orientation self-identification…but also on the seven variables assessing sexual orientation itself.” (34)
Had Cuomo and others, who want to ban all forms of
supportive therapy for those who have chosen to resist same-sex attraction, merely
publicized against those interventions associated with negative outcomes, they
might be more credible. However, they are not taking the middle road. Nor are
they asking for further research to identity interventions that offer the most
promise. Instead, they seek to ban all
forms of such therapy, thereby revealing their own intolerance and disregard
for the struggles of these youth.
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