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Radical homosexual activists rant at public hearing in Mass. State House for bill to ban counseling on homosexuality for youth

Part of horrible national push in state legislatures

POSTED: August 12, 2013

The radical homosexual movement's national campaign to ban therapists from counseling youth to deal with homosexual and transgender issues came to the Massachusetts State House. On July 16, some of the most radical elements of the homosexual movement converged at a public hearing to push their bill filed here.


Homosexual activists and their allies piled into the hearing room.

And it wasn't pretty. What we saw was similar to the scripted scene in other states around the country. It was a showcase of misrepresentation, lies, twisted logic, and lots of angry emotional rhetoric. Luckily, some ex-gays -- and MassResistance -- were there to provide a good dose of truth.

Using vulnerable kids to support a false ideology

Homosexuality is very often a result of emotional wounds from either early sexual trauma (such as sexual molestation, exposure to pornography, etc.) or serious issues with one or both parents. Young people who have serious emotional problems can be drawn into homosexuality by others. Skilled mental health professionals can often successfully help people with same-sex attraction work out their issues and heal their psychological wounds.

If youth can be helped when they are starting down the road to same-sex behavior, it can save them years of pain, depression, and worse.

But the homosexual movement wants to make it illegal to defuse any child's "gay" or transgender self-proclaimed "identity." They are is obsessed with the false concept of being "born that way." And the existence of a growing number of ex-gays -- people who have been healed from their same-sex addictions -- greatly angers them.

Important VIDEO: This very moving video describes the need for reparative therapy for youth. From 2012 NARTH conference.
Also see Voices-of-Change.org

A national campaign in state legislatures

So the latest effort is a well-funded and well-organized campaign using no-holds-barred tactics to pass state laws across the country to ban such "reparative therapy" for children -- even if they and/or their parents want it!

Last year a ban became law in California. It recently passed the New Jersey legislature and it is awaiting a signature by the Governor. Both bans were the result of similar well-organized and well-funded lobbying efforts. Pro-family therapists are currently suing California in federal court over the law and have announced they will also do so in New Jersey if it is signed by the Governor. The bill is also being pushed in the Pennsylvania legislature, and will likely to be introduced in others around the country. All of the bills have approximately the same text.

Groundwork laid years ago

This national move in legislatures is their latest tactic. It follows years of successful high-pressure lobbying efforts in various national mental health organizations to force publication of statements critical of reparative therapy.

Like the original 1973 American Psychiatric Association statement supporting homosexuality, these "conclusions" were invariably arrived at very unscientifically and in a climate of intense political pressure and intimidation. For example, in 2009 the American Psychological Association (APA) published a statement against reparative therapy.

Recently, a former president of the APA, Dr. Nicholas Cummings, stated publicly that the organization had been "totally hijacked" by gay and lesbian rights activists and that he has personally seen "hundreds of people change" from homosexuality to heterosexuality.

The bill filed in Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, they have filed Bill H154, which is similar to the ones filed in other states. It was sponsored by "out homosexual" Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford) and co-sponsored by over a dozen of the usual far-left State House crowd.

The bill bans therapy by a licensed mental health professional for anyone under 18 which seeks "(A) to change behavioral expression of an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, or (B) to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."

And the bill specifically allows therapy which "provides acceptance, support, or understanding" of a young person's homosexuality or transgenderism.

From what we can tell, there are no licensed mental health professionals in Massachusetts who do this kind of therapy. But the activists are pushing this bill with enormous intensity, nevertheless.

The public hearing: Well-scripted, well-organized, emotional

On July 16, the public hearing took place before the Joint Committee of Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities. What we saw here is likely similar to what you'll see when this gets to your state. The homosexual and transgender lobbies were there in force. Their presentation was very well-scripted and organized -- and full of anger and emotion.


The committee listens to testimony (with a reporter sitting in front). Sen. Michael Barrett, the Senate Chairman, never showed up. There was no reason given.

There were a number of people testifying on both sides. We've included below the major players.


Organized and executed. Prominent pro-gay activists watch the testimony. At right is Arline Isaacson, lesbian lobbyist and organizer of testimony for that hearing. Waiting to testify at left is Dr. Norman Spack, who runs a "gender-change" clinic for children at Boston Children's Hospital. The person sitting on the floor is the interim director of the Mass. Transgender Political Coalition.

Ex-gays testify

Two young people came and gave some very powerful testimony about their experiences leaving homosexuality through therapy.


YOUNG WOMAN (EX-LESBIAN)

Here's the testimony she gave:

I was 15 years old when I was molested by an older woman. I became confused about my identity and my sexuality and I went into great distress. . . . The school psychologist could not help me, but I realized I needed help . . . Finally at age 17 I got counseling, and five years later I have completely regained myself and my identity. I was excited about life, emotionally stable, and completely free from lesbianism -- both the activity and the desires ... I really don't know who I would be today if I had not gone through those years of counseling. Today I am here because I want other teens who share similar circumstances as I have to have the freedom to pursue counseling for themselves. They, too deserve the right to have the counseling that can make a tremendous difference in their life.


YOUNG MAN (EX-GAY)

Here's the testimony he gave:

When I was growing up my dad was very strict with me and when he got angry his discipline was severe. Being a sensitive child, I internalized this and processed it as if my father rejected me or disowned me, even though he had not. And I rejected my father. And at some point I believed that I hated my father, and in so doing rejected the primary male role model in my life.

And this arrested my emotional development. Without realizing it, I was rejecting my own masculinity ... I thought that I didn't measure up as a man, and I felt inadequate next to other men. I began seeking affirmation and acceptance from other men that I did not get from my father. I was attracted to men with qualities that they had that I believed that I lacked within myself.

I never asked for or wanted these feelings. But I didn't know how to deal with them until I received counseling which was instrumental in helping me identify the root cause of these emotions, which was deep pain from my childhood ... I stand before you today with my sexuality completely restored by the grace of God, and I couldn't be any happier pursuing a heterosexual relationship with my girlfriend who's here today ... and the hope and promise of marriage and starting a family in the near future. I wish that I had access to counseling when I was a teenager so I could address this dysfunction a lot sooner. And I believe that those who wish to be set free from this addiction should not be denied counseling as an option to them if that is their choice.

There were also other ex-gays who gave compelling testimony from a faith perspective.

Hardcore homosexual activists testify

It's rare that the most hardcore and vicious of the homosexual activists would be taking the lead at a public hearing. But in state after state, unlike in the "gay marriage" efforts, those appear to be the ones at the forefront. They're certainly the most angry at any deviation from the "born gay" narrative.

Their testimony includes some common themes:

(1) "Change" therapy. The homosexual lobby has invented the term "change therapy" which is never used by licensed professionals and is intentionally misleading, implying that the purpose is a sudden "change." The actual term is "reparative" therapy, which describes helping people gradually heal their emotional wounds.

(2) Cause of depression, etc. The activists fume that the depression, trauma, and even feelings of suicide associated with homosexual behavior are caused by reparative therapy. But in fact the opposite is true.

(3) And third, they paint a picture for legislators of absurd, cruel, and ridiculous kinds of techniques being used in reparative therapy, which is a fabrication and completely untrue.


REP. CARL SCIORTINO (D-MEDFORD) - sponsor of the bill

Sciortino is "openly gay" and is the point man for the national homosexual and transgender lobby in the Mass. State House. He is also a homosexual activist in his own right, having disrupted a Mass at Holy Cross Cathedral in 2003 to protest the Church's position against "gay marriage."

Sciortino (left) testifying at hearing, and (at right) posing with his homosexual lover while disrupting Mass at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston on June 1, 2003.

In his testimony, Sciortino made an emotional but factually empty claim about "abusive and heinous practices" from "another generation" that "are still happening today."

[A]fter California passed it, an intern in my office said, "Did you know that this practice is still happening, and there are people in Massachusetts who are being impacted. And I was frankly shocked ... I've heard of friends and family from a different generation who were subjected to the most abusive practices. We've heard of the most abusive and heinous practices -- by licensed professionals -- with the promise of curing them of their homosexuality ... But the reality is that these practices are still happening today

This is not therapy. This is not a legitimate clinical practice. This is child abuse. And what we are seeking to do is see that no child and no parent of a child that may turn out to be LGBT is misled by a clinician ... into believing that they can be cured.


WAYNE BESEN

Besen is a national homosexual activist who focuses on attacking and demonizing ex-gays and religious groups that help minister to homosexuals.

Wayne Besen (left) testifying before committee, and (at right) in April 2009 terrorizing the Park Street Church in downtown Boston with a megaphone while a religious service on healing homosexuality was going on inside. [MassResistance photos]

Besen's testimony was a classic example of intellectual dishonesty using flawed logic and emotion. Similar to Sciortino, he starts out by listing bizarre "experiments" over half a century ago and attempts to make it appear that today's licensed therapists are doing that today. And he adds that these therapists are doing it to three-year-old children! This is all completely absurd, of course:

From the 1930s to the 1970s gay people were guinea pigs to cruel psychological experiments that intended to change their sexual orientation. They were subjected to hypnosis, sex hormones, lobotomies, therapeutic castrations, sex therapy with prostitutes, shock treatment, and aversion therapies. None of these horrific experiments worked. . .

Today's heirs to abusive and ineffective therapies are committing consumer fraud, compounded by the tragic and inexcusable fraud they are practicing this psychological voodoo on children as young as three years old. That's right, three years old. Let's be clear; we are not debating a legitimate form of therapy. By design, the goal of so-called reparative therapy is to hijack medical language and use it to stigmatize LGBT people for ideological, not medical reasons . . .

Of course, he gave no concrete examples. Besen doesn't stop there. He went on to suggest to the legislators that some therapists even use exorcisms to treat patients:

And Exhibit A of why this is important -- the last people who were up here -- and I have a video of this -- they actually do exorcisms to quote out of people's mouths [sic] or other orifices where they claim ungodly events occur. And so this is exactly what they call therapy.

This is outrageously misleading. Besen was referring to Joanne Highly of Life Ministry who had testified earlier. But Joanne Highly is not a therapist. In fact she testified that she doesn't agree with reparative therapy. The so-called "exorcism video" is 48 seconds taken from a 1993 PBS documentary, and appears to be taken completely out of context.


DON GORTON

Gorton is a Boston-based homosexual activist with a history of participating in attacks on people with traditional religious values, including a the infamous Park Street Church disruption in 2009.

Don Gorton (left) testifying before committee, and (at right) holding pseudo-Christian sign as part of group terrorizing a Tea Party event on the Boston Common on April 15, 2012. [MassResistance photos]

Gorton started out his testimony with a rambling gay "history" of how homosexuality became accepted as normal by the medical profession through "groundbreaking" work by psychologists in 1973 and thus anyone claiming that homosexuality is abnormal is now "discredited."

Gorton went on to give the legislators his description of reparative therapy:

Ex-gays use a template based on three stages to anthologize homosexuality. The formative state of childhood and teenage years; the exploratory phase; and the recovery phase in which they claim to become straight, although finding people who authentically went from gay to straight is near impossible.

The ex-gay movement stands beyond the fringes of behavioral science and their psychological theories are discredited. The practitioners of the dark arts continue to superimpose their template of pathology on the lives of vulnerable and impressionable youth forced into this circumstance by their parents. No choice.

This harsh condemnation of same-sex attraction and vilification of the LGBT community [sic]. The browbeating not grounded in science attached with feelings of low self-esteem place youth at grave risk. I implore this committee to take action to stop this abuse now.


TOM LANG

Lang has a long history of terrorizing and intimidating churches, pro-family gatherings, parents, and others. In 2005 he founded "KnowThyNeighbor", a vicious homosexual group that posted the names of the signers of the Marriage Amendment on the Internet and encouraged people to harass them.

Lang (at left) testifying, and (at right) holding sign as part of group screaming at a pro-family Marriage Amendment rally in 2006: ""You're nothing but bigots; Christ would be ashamed of all of you." "We won, go home, get over it." [MassResistance photos]

Lang's testimony was emotional, and well-delivered -- and completely illogical.

Lang talked about Greg Kimball, a local homosexual "22-year-old boy" who called up a national on-air advice talk-show aired on Boston Kiss-108 FM radio, a popular station for young people, in April 2010.

Greg Kimball called in to speak with a specialist about some relationship issues he was having. As soon as Greg identified that he was gay, this specialist told him that they receive a lot of calls like this; homosexuality was not normal, that Greg was broken and needed to be cured; homosexuality was as bad as adultery, theft, or murder. And he was referred to the only ones that could help, Exodus International and Focus on the Family.

Lang went on to say that when he heard this from Kimball, he got together a number of LGBT groups and orchestrated a pressure campaign against Kiss-108's parent company, ClearChannel. Interestingly, the pressure campaign was not successful.

[The] show, which is still aired on KISS-108, still refers activist youth who identify as LGBT to Live Hope ministries and Focus on the Family, both of which promote conversion therapy.

Yes, right here in Massachusetts, through a beloved radio station, under parents' noses, children as young as 13, for years were being referred to the nation's leading conversion therapy organizations, and most likely still are. We cannot know how many LGBT youth were directed down this path or how many suffered harm.

Young Greg Kimball expressed to [Boston homosexual newspaper] Bay Windows in an interview. He said, "How many gays or questioning youth have been hurt? How many cut themselves, or ran away from home, or killed themselves because of this advice? And this is not a dramatic rambling on Kimball's part. At that time I lived in his town for 13 years. During that time our community had at least four deaths -- suicide and overdose of young people who are LGBT. These kids may have been known to Greg.

We need at least to be able to assure these children that if they or their parents seek help from licensed medical and mental help professionals that they are provided with acceptance and support and would never be put in a situation which they feel that their existence is wrong or evil.

Lang's rhetoric is very emotional, but his logic has several huge holes, including: (1) none of the groups referred to are licensed reparative therapists, but instead are religious-based organizations and thus not covered under the law; (2) all the groups referred to are out of state, out of the bill's jurisdiction; and (3) Lang does not offer any evidence that the kids cutting themselves and/or committing suicide had gotten "counseling" from any these groups, or even called up the show.


MassResistance testifies

BRIAN CAMENKER of MassResistance

In his testimony, Camenker got right to the point:

This bill is a well-organized and well-funded campaign in state legislatures across the county by the gay lobby. And it's very well-scripted; as you can see, there are people brought in from out of state to testify. And a lot of what you've heard is exaggerations, and some outright lies. It's similar to the strategy that they've used in other places. This is not generated from Massachusetts; it's a national issue.

As you've also heard, homosexuality is often the result of the emotional wounds from early sexual trauma such as sexual molestation, exposure to pornography, and similar kinds of things. The term "conversion therapy" was invented by the opposition. What this really about is helping people work out their issues and heal their psychological wounds. That is the way licensed professionals look at it. As I said, the term "conversion therapy" is meant to scare legislators. It's not used by our people.

There was also various testimony about free speech, etc.

Confronting the doctor who does "transgender" procedures on kids

Camenker finished his testimony by commenting on the heinous work of Dr. Norman Spack. Spack is the infamous Children's Hospital endocrinologist who runs a "gender change" clinic for children -- including hormone and puberty-blocking treatments which change their height and can render them infertile -- in preparation for actual sex-change surgery later on.

Spack was in the room -- brought in by the homosexual lobby -- and was about to testify in support of this bill. Here's what Camenker said in his testimony regarding Spack and his program:

Massachusetts allows children to go through transgender body change, where Children's Hospital will have them take hormone drugs and other extreme medical procedures. This has been documented in the Boston Globe on the front page on several occasions. They not only change their height, but make them sterile for life. So if we want to start talking about what kids can do, the extreme kinds of things that are going on in this Commonwealth, this needs to be addressed first.

Spack answered Camenker's remarks in his testimony -- in a very untruthful way. And he added that parents should NOT have the right to decide on whether reparative therapy is right for their children. The state should simply ban therapy which "denies the validity of the patient's affirmation of their gender."

These two 14-year-old boys were identical twins before Spack's "transgender" procedures. Now the brother on the left is four inches shorter and is developing female appearing breasts resulting from puberty-blocking drugs and opposite-sex hormones. See article here.

Spack's testimony was so disturbing that we are going to present it separately, in its own upcoming email.

Hostile reaction from Committee to pro-family people.

The most disturbing part of the hearing was possibly the hostile reaction of the legislators in the panel toward the pro-family people. Of course, this is a liberal committee and the House chairman was one of the co-sponsors of the bill. And we're used to shabby treatment at public hearings.

But this took us by surprise. Two of them in particular behaved in ways that we've really never seen before in the State House!

Rep. Paul Heroux (D Attleboro) was clearly angry and kept asking aggressive and demeaning questions. For example, he asked the young ex-gay man "You said in your testimony that no one is born homosexual. Can you prove that for us?" When pro-family people defended reparative therapy, he peppered them with technical questions about how the scientific community determines what is legitimate and what isn't.

Committee member Rep. Paul Heroux was not happy with pro-family people or their testimony.

But Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier (D Pittsfield) was even more hostile. In 18 years we've never seen anything like this. Generally, committee members just listen to testimony, and maybe ask a question.

We've never seen a rep as rude as Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier. And we've seen a lot of 'em in that building!

But after one of the pro-family people finished testifying against Bill H154 from a religious perspective, Rep. Farley-Bouvier angrily lashed out at her with a strange, rambling rant:

I just want to make one more statement if you don't mind. And that is that I am a deeply religious person. Faith is central to my life. And I find the idea that we would subject minors to a therapy that would be harmful, to be ungodly, and to harm children is not OK. And it's very different to take this approach, to offer an adult a choice, is very, very different than to subject a minor to this kind of therapy. I'm making a statement now, ma'am, thank you very much.

And so, I just feel it's important to make that statement. I appreciate different people's viewpoints here. But our job as a state, our first job as a state, is to protect children from harm. Thank you very much.

For someone like this, the 2014 elections can't come soon enough.

The next step

At this point, Bill H154 is still in the committee. We don't anticipate any action on it for at least several weeks. We think that the big battle will be outside of the committee.

You can submit written testimony for bill H154 via email and also can also call and email members of the committee.

We'll keep you up to date on this.

For these radicals, this is not about helping children. Most of them don't have any children of their own. Their overwhelming concern is their political agenda. Please act with MassResistance to stop this bill.