State officials pledge to ban gay ‘cure’ therapy in Pennsylvania
State officials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are working towards legally banning ‘gay cure’ therapy.
The bill, which both city and state officials are working on, will rule out and discredit therapy practices which aim to change sexual orientation.
State representative Brian Sims, who was the first openly gay person elected in Pennsylvania, is fronting the bill.
Sims’ likened conversion therapy to child abuse, pledged to crack down on it – despite a lack of intel about practitioners.
“I don’t know a single LGBT person that hasn’t been touched by conversion therapy in some way or another,” Sims said.
“Because of how it’s practiced. It’s not a full-time therapist who puts it on their sign that they practice conversion therapy. They’re known within a community, within a church, within a parish that they’ll help your son or daughter if they’re going through these issues,” Sims explained.
Sims admitted that he state had little knowledge about how widespread conversion therapy was, which would potentially make the law difficult to enforce.
New Vice President Mike Pence has openly supported ‘gay cure’ therapy and a number of other terrifying beliefs.
Pence previously suggested that HIV prevention funding be drained in order to fund state-sponsored ‘gay cure’ therapy.
On a 2000 Congressional campaign website, he wrote: “Congress should support the reauthorisation of the [HIV funding] Ryan White Care Act only after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organisations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviours that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus. Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behaviour.”
