Let's Play Pretend to Un-Gay

What is it going to take for people to accept that sexual orientation is no more mutable than eye color? Seriously! Since Dr. Robert Spitzer retracted his research, Alan Chambers of Exodus has conceded that nobody changes sexual orientation     including Alan Chambers. This denial provides Regina Griggs, of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays, yet another opportunity to prove that she and PFOX are nothing but tools of repression for the religious right. She has outdone herself this time.

Ms. Griggs has sent an open letter to California State Senator Ted Lieu who is the sponsor of the bill that would prohibit reorientation "therapy" of minors;

to which Ms. Griggs has attached HIV statistics.

Did Peter LaBarbera or Matt Barber write this letter? Barber, after all is on the board of PFOX. The very title     Open Letter from Parents of Homosexuals and Former Homosexuals to State Senator Ted Lieu     provides a clue.

Cutting through the abundant drivel, Griggs claims that gays can become un-gay and that the bill usurps parental rights. Aside from the fact that people cannot change their sexual orientation, children cannot give informed consent. There are many things that we, as a society, do not allow parents to do. Simply stated, we do not permit parents to abuse their children and these "therapies" are a form of abuse.

Only a religious crackpot would subject their child to this kind of treatment. There are only two possible outcomes.

1. Either the kid fakes being straight or;
2. Admits that he or she remains gay.

There are no other possibilities. If the child admits that the "therapy" doesn't work it will be his or her fault for not praying hard enough, not trying hard enough or not doing something else well enough. The kid learns to fake it which creates an enormous upheaval in the future. It's a lose - lose proposition for everyone. Parents and children are both damaged.

We live in a country where a stunningly disproportionate number of homeless people are kids who got kicked out when they came out. Griggs and her fundamentalist friends can take credit for this. It's bad enough that our kids get bullied in school; Do they have to get bullied by their parents as well?  Little wonder that they also have a spectacularly disproportionate suicide rate. I don't care what they think of me. I had a great career and the same partner/lover for over 30 years. However, this nonsense makes me want to choke the living shit out of this bitch. Seriously!