Conversion Therapy: Celebs Rumors

Andrew Hartzler, the nephew of anti-LGBTQ Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, has once again gone viral for sharing a video of his parents hiring an exorcist to “exorcize the demons” they believe were “responsible” for “making him gay.” Hartzler first went viral in the summer of 2022 after posting a video of his aunt Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler crying after opposing the Respect for Marriage Act of 2022.The Respect for Marriage Act requires states to recognize same-sex marriages made in other states and repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as only between a man and a woman.Using Biblical values as the basis for her argument, the Congresswoman tearfully begged for the bill not to pass.After the bill passed, Andrew Hartzler posted a response to his aunt, pointing out how this kind of speech is “hateful rhetoric and blatant discrimination” against LGBTQ people.Hartlzer went through his aunt’s speech, highlighting her leaps in logic and fundamental ignorance about religion, the government, and LGBTQ people. When the Respect for Marriage Act came to President Biden’s desk, Andrew Hartzler was invited to the signing ceremony on December 13, 2022. Hartzler has since worked at Oklahomans for Equality, an Oklahoma-based LGBTQ advocacy group that operates the Dennis R.

diversion or treatment programs designed to decrease the risk of recidivism.According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, the now-17-year-old’s father read his son’s diary in 2020, when the youth was 14, and discovered the boy was attracted to other males. The father then imposed various punishments on his son, forcing him to do military-style training runs at night, refrain from shaving, expose his genitals, and read pages from his diary out loud.He also accessed his son’s online social media accounts, monitoring sites he visited and restricting who he could communicate with.When those punishments didn’t work, the father sought help from a psychologist in the hope that the psychologist would affirm the parents’ conservative worldview.

ruled in favor of the state, finding that Tingley’s free speech rights were not violated.But on December 11, three justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh — said they would have heard Tingley’s appeal. “There is a fierce public debate over how best to help minors with gender dysphoria,” Thomas wrote in his dissent.

CNN, Johnson, an attorney by trade, gave legal advice to Exodus International. The pro-conversion therapy organization was the leader in the “ex-gay” movement, which sought to change people’s orientations through a mix of aversion therapy, talk therapy, and religious-based counseling.Exodus eventually shut down in 2013, with its president, Alan Chambers posting a public apology for the “pain and hurt” the organization’s advocacy caused.Chambers would later go on an apology tour, appearing at LGBTQ and Pride events, including Capital Pride, and speaking with LGBTQ news outlets, including Metro Weekly, about what led him to change his stance on conversion therapy, which he had previously hailed as effective, citing his own marriage to a woman.He later came out in favor of bans on conversion therapy for minors.

Bible Belt Baby, was released last October, it didn’t gain as much exposure until Sean Feucht, a Christian nationalist preacher with ties to former President Donald Trump, criticized her and fellow Christian musician, Derek Webb, for working together on the song “Good Day.”Feucht also criticized Grant for performing in drag, calling her collaboration with Webb a sign of “the last days,” and claiming that she’d never carve out a spot within the Christian music genre.Feucht’s comments, which came amid an ongoing right-wing campaign against drag and the visibility of transgender people — as evidenced by the introduction of more than 500 bills specifically targeting public expressions of gender-nonconformity in 49 states — only served to boost Grant’s profile.Not long after people learned of Feucht’s feud with Grant, Bible Belt Baby shot to the top of the iTunes Christian music charts, remaining there for nine straight days, while “Good Day” reached as high as No. 2 on the individual song charts.While the expectation for Christian music stars has generally been to embrace the right-wing ideology that so often accompanies evangelical religious beliefs, Grant’s success on the charts was indicative that there might be some space — even among the genre’s most fervent fans — for artists that don’t adhere to expectations or conform to a certain mold.

Detroit News. “Let’s continue working together to ensure anyone can ‘make it’ in Michigan, expand fundamental freedoms and fight back against any and all forms of discrimination.”The types of techniques used in conversion therapy can run the gamut from more severe forms, such as electroshock therapy, induced vomiting or the infliction of physical discomfort as a form of “aversion therapy” to less severe forms such as talk-based therapy, in which a therapist may encourage patients or clients to conform to Biblical standards of morality or a specific set of religious beliefs.While proponents and opponents of conversion therapy agree that sexuality can be fluid over time and that gender-nonconformity alone is not indicative of either sexual orientation or gender identity, critics of conversion therapy claim that therapists engaging in such practices falsely hold them out as a “cure-all” that will completely eradicate a person’s naturally-occurring same-sex attraction, despite overwhelming medical evidence that such techniques are largely ineffective in achieving such goals.Under the ban, physicians, psychologists, licensed nurses, counselors, social workers, and therapists are prohibited from subjecting minors to conversion therapy in their professional capacity or in exchange for compensation.

Arizona Republic. “The state is leading by example on this issue, and we will continue working until Arizona is a place where every individual can participate equally in our economy and our workforce without fear of discrimination or exclusion,” Hobbs said in prepared remarks. “This is the only way to move our state forward.”Under Hobbs’s first executive order, state agencies will be prohibited from using funds to promote or facilitate conversion therapy, or efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity based on the belief that LGBTQ identities are pathologies that can be suppressed or even “cured.”Most major medical and mental health organizations have denounced conversion therapy as unscientific and, more importantly, ineffective at achieving its purported goals — namely, the ability to radically and permanently  “change” a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or feelings of sexual attraction, as opposed to simply providing subjects with techniques that help them resist giving into or acknowledging their feelings or desires.

Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep.

The Anglican archbishop of Sydney has apologised to the clergy after “mistakenly” promoting an event by a gay evangelical in the diocese’s newspaper. The Catholic archdiocese printed an advertisement in their Southern Cross newspaper, which promoted gay rights campaigner Jayne Ozanne’s upcoming talk entitled Unashamedly Gay. Unashamedly Christian, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.Trigger Warning: This story discusses suicide ideation, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.Jayne Ozanne is the director of the Ozanne Foundation, an organisation that works with religious leaders and faith groups across the world with the aim of protecting the rights of LGBTQI people. The advertisement for her talk was taken down from the online edition and replaced with a photograph of a sunset. Archbishop Kanishka Raffel published an announcement to the clergy, declaring his regret over his decision to accept the advertisement. In the newsletter, Archbishop Raffel apologised for causing “distress” to the clergy and affirmed that the editorial process would go under review to prevent mistakes like this from happening in future.

The Anglican archbishop of Sydney has apologised to the clergy after “mistakenly” promoting an event by a gay evangelical in the diocese’s newspaper. The Catholic archdiocese printed an advertisement in their Southern Cross newspaper, which promoted gay rights campaigner Jayne Ozanne’s upcoming talk entitled Unashamedly Gay. Unashamedly Christian, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.Jayne Ozanne is the director of the Ozanne Foundation, an organisation that works with religious leaders and faith groups across the world with the aim of protecting the rights of LGBTQI people. The advertisement for her talk was taken down from the online edition and replaced with a photograph of a sunset. Archbishop Kanishka Raffel published an announcement to the clergy, declaring his regret over his decision to accept the advertisement. In the newsletter, Archbishop Raffel apologised for causing “distress” to the clergy and affirmed that the editorial process would go under review to prevent mistakes like this from happening in future.

Pushed to explain his stance ahead of the elections, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has said he will support a ban on “harmful” gay conversion practices in the state. Days after he claimed that the legislation was a “matter for the cabinet”, Premier Perrottet said that if re-elected, his government would provide “in-principle” support to a ban on practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Independent Sydney MP Alex GreenwichOut gay Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich had last week announced that a law to outlaw gay conversion practices would be part of his omnibus Equality Bill. NSW Labor leader Chris Minns declared the party’s support for the legislation.Greenwich had said that his support for a future minority government would depend on them supporting the law in Parliament. “I’m grateful for the Premier’s support to end LGBT conversion practices in NSW.

Reuters.Under the law, which applies equally to all licensed therapists, practitioners who subject minors to the therapy, which purports to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, can be fined, disciplined, or risk having their license to practice suspended or revoked. But Brian Tingley, a therapist who lives in Tacoma and practices in Fircrest, Washington, said the ban amounted to censorship, seeking to silence him from engaging in “talk therapy” to help clients with “unwanted same-sex attraction” overcome their attractions and help them to live lives consistent with their moral values and religious beliefs.

2020 study from the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think tank at the UCLA School of Law, found that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals subjected to conversion therapy are twice as likely to attempt suicide as those who never underwent it. A similar peer-reviewed study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that LGBTQ youth subjected to conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide and more than two-and-a-half times as likely to report multiple suicide attempts over the past year.But the South Florida bans were soon challenged by two marriage and family therapists in Palm Beach County, who claimed that the bans on conversion therapy discriminated against the therapists’ right to engage in and provide counseling consistent with their clients’ religious beliefs, and their clients’ right to seek treatment to deal with “unwanted same-sex attraction” or gender dysphoria, based on their religious beliefs opposing homosexuality.A federal judge initially ruled against the therapists, but on appeal, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S.

executive order barring conversion therapy, which attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, for people of all ages.Taking unilateral action after the failure of the Republican-led legislature to even consider bills seeking to ban conversion therapy for minors, Wolf has directed state agencies to discourage the practice and instead promote evidence-based practices for supporting LGBTQ individuals who may be struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity.The order also directs the state’s Department of Human Services, Insurance Department, and other agencies to ensure state funds, programs, and contracts are not being used to subject minors to conversion therapy, refer people to therapists who engage in the practice, or provide reimbursement for the therapy. It also directs agencies to investigate any reports of claims that have been paid for conversion therapy through the state’s Medicaid program, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or private insurance.The order ensures training for child welfare staff to support LGBTQ youth and their families, and sets the stage for licensing boards to discipline health professionals who violate ethical or professional standards by providing the therapy.

City Builders Church, which has in the past been accused of reportedly encouraging its members to take part in a now-closed gay conversion therapy program run by Living Waters. The church and Heath denied endorsing so-called gay conversion therapy.Shaping up to be a Coalition Party Room that has even less in common with the Victorian community than the current one.Curious strategy.#springst https://t.co/470AOohaq2— Jaala Pulford MP (@JaalaPulford) July 31, 2022The choice of some Liberal candidates has led to concerns both within and outside the party.

Conversion practices survivors and Amnetsy International have called on the governments of Western Australia and South Australia to ban harmful and unscientific conversion practices. They have pointed to Victoria’s “ground-breaking legislation” as an example of how states can “address conversion ideology and practices in a fair and equitable way.” “10% of LGBTQA+ Australians are at risk of conversion practices. For decades, conversion practices have been responsible for causing irreparable harm to LGBTQA+ people,” said Amnesty International on its campaign page. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan had last year promised the LGBTQI community that if reelected his government would enact a law to ban conversion practices. Amnesty International Australia, SOGICE Survivors and Ending Conversion Practices WA said they have requested a meeting with the WA Premier, Health Minister, and Attorney General, to discuss the issue. The WA government proposed to ban so-called conversion therapy by introducing legislation for a national code of conduct for unregulated health workers last year.

The Tasmanian Catholic Church’s attempts to pit medical and health care professionals against a report about harmful conversion practices has been dubbed a “misinformation campaign”. The Tasmanian Law Reform Institute (TLRI) has called out the “incorrect” statements made about its report in the Catholic Standard, the official print publication of the Catholic Church in Tasmania. Earlier this month, a TLRI report had recommended law reforms to deal with unscientific and harmful conversion practices to change a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.

Former Fox News host and conservative pundit Megyn Kelly equated gender-affirming care for transgender youth to conversion therapy that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation.Appearing on the Eric Bolling: The Balance show on Newsman this past Tuesday, Kelly commented on a Fox News profile of Ryland Whittington, a trans 14-year-old boy living in California. Fox News’ Bryan Llenas, a correspondent for the America’s Newsroom program, interviewed Whittington and his family on the experience of coming out and transitioning. The story was viewed as a largely positive one, as the Whittington family was accepting of Ryland’s transition, and his mother, Hillary, reportedly said: “I would rather have a living son than a dead daughter.”But the positive coverage of transgender topics — which conservatives have seized on as a cause to rail against — angered many of Fox News’ viewers.

updated its Community Guidelines, clarifying what type of content will be removed or made ineligible for recommendation in the “For You” feed. The guidelines were adopted to “further the well-being of our community and the integrity of our platform,” the company said in an announcement.“At TikTok, we believe people should be able to express themselves creatively and be entertained in a safe, secure, and welcoming environment,” Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s Head of Trust and Safety, said in a statement.

2 min read The New Zealand National Party has confirmed that it will allow its MPs to vote with their conscience on the proposed ban on conversion therapy in Aotearoa.

Canada’s House of Commons last week voted unanimously to ban the ineffective and harmful practice of conversion therapy.The measure, proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party, was first introduced in March 2020 but died after parliament was prorogued.After passing the House of Commons, the bill must now be approved by the upper Senate chamber before it becomes law.“It’s an important day to…express yourself and understand yourself the way you are and the way you want to be,” Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters. The bill was approved by the House in June after being reintroduced, but again failed to pass ahead of the September federal election.

conversion therapy, the so-called ex-gay movement is very much alive and thriving. Whether fueled by religion, politics, or pseudo-psychology, the movement’s belief system — which teaches people that being gay, bi, trans, or gender-nonconforming is a sin or sickness, a faulty trait to be eradicated through piety and prayer, or by clinical intervention — persists, and persistently causes irrevocable harm in the lives of the most vulnerable.“We know that nearly 700,000 people have gone through this in the U.S.

Liberty University, an evangelical institution in the state of Virginia, faces turmoil after former students filed a lawsuit against the US Board of Education for allowing so-called conversion therapy and other discriminatory practices against LGBTQI+ individuals to occur in schools receiving public funding.One of the plaintiffs is Lucas Wilson, who for four years underwent Liberty University’s so-called gender conversion therapy. Toronto-born Wilson wants to put an end to American universities’ ability to disseminate homophobic thought with the US taxpayers’ dime.Lucas Wilson attended Liberty University from 2008 to 2012 and was put into contact with the university’s gender conversion programme shortly after enrolling.

found the organization had violated New Jersey’s consumer fraud law.In issuing that decision, the jury found that JONAH had violated the consumer fraud law by promising a service on which it could not deliver: the changing of clients’ orientation from gay to straight, on the premise that being gay is a treatable mental disorder, a position that was rejected by the American Psychiatric Association more than four decades ago.It also awarded the plaintiffs — three former clients and two of their mothers — $72,400 in damages to compensate them for fees they paid to JONAH to enroll in conversion therapy sessions, as well as remedial mental health counseling for one of the former clients.As part of the settlement, JONAH agreed to pay the full

Post and Courier.Kimbrell previously asked Attorney General Alan Wilson in May to intervene and block the Columbia City Council from passing the proposed ordinance ahead of the June 15 vote. He and his fellow South Carolina Senate Republicans have cast the ordinance as an infringement on the First Amendment rights of therapists, patients who wish to rid themselves of “same-sex attraction” or gender dysphoria, and the rights of parents who wish to change their children’s sexual orientation or gender identity.“It is not constitutional for a city to insert itself in trying to prescribe what can and cannot be practiced in the medical field,” Kimbrell said.

investigated Tshibaka, a conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter who is running against Murkowski in the 2022 election, and found an article by the former federal government lawyer arguing that gay people can “work through the process of coming out of homosexuality.”Published in the Harvard Law Record, Tshibaka celebrated “National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day” in the article, which she said was “dedicated to helping homosexuals overcome their sexual tendencies and move towards a healthy lifestyle.”Tshibaka told gay people “not be controlled by the ‘once-gay-always-gay-rhetoric’ used to advance political agendas” and instead wrote that Christianity could help them to “come out of homosexuality.”She specifically mentioned the now-defunct

SB 514, would prohibit any transgender person under the age of 21 from receiving gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery, and would penalize medical providers who prescribe or provide such treatments by revoking their medical licenses and fining them $1,000 per violation.See also: assasasaA provision within that bill would require any state employees — including teachers, school administrators or counselors — to “out” transgender or nonbinary students to their parents by informing them in writing of their child’s gender-nonconformity, even if doing so could potentially put the child at risk of abuse, homelessness, or even death.“No government agent, nor any employee of this State, any political subdivision of

2 min read In what seems to be from a scene out of “Groundhog Day” and following backlash from all circles that the New Zealand Government isn’t moving fast enough in banning conversion therapy, including the fact that National, Green and Labour parties have all agreed to the ban, the NZ Minister of Justice has again reaffirmed the […]

2 min read A gay man from the US state of Kentucky has recounted his horrifying experience to “cure” his homosexuality in so-called ‘conversion therapy’ sessions. In an op-ed written for The River City News, Curtis Galloway described his traumatising conversion therapy experience saying the supposed treatment left him with “permanent mental and emotional scars”.

Donald Trump has named Marcus Bachmann to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, an advisory panel in the Department of Health and Human Services. Bachmann and his wife, former Rep. Michele Bachmann, own a Christian counseling practice that has a history of practicing conversion therapy.

debunked practice that has been condemned by major health organizations.

The Victorian government looks set to pass a strict law against conversion practices that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, with fines of up to $10,000 or 10 years imprisonment.Survivors and equal rights organisations have welcomed the proposed law as “powerful” and “better than any Bill in Australia” to date.The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 was introduced in Parliament on Wednesday.

2 min read Cruel and bigoted practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity will soon be stamped out across the Australian state of Victoria, thanks to new laws that have been introduced into Parliament.

The Victorian government  looks set to pass a strict law against conversion practices that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, with fines of up to $10,000 or 10 years imprisonment.Survivors and equal rights organisations have welcomed the proposed law as “powerful” and “better than any Bill in Australia” to date.The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 was introduced in Parliament on Wednesday.

McClatchy.The event was opened by Jannique Stewart of Missouri, a speaker who described her work as training others in opposing abortion and in “countering some of the agenda when it comes to LGBTQ.”According to McClatchy, a source within the State Department described several aides as “appalled” that the event took place despite their concerns, and surprised that Pompeo — who has his own history of anti-LGBTQ statements and votes from his time in Congress — touted his appearance in his latest “Miles with Mike” message to State Department employees.While the State Department frequently condemns conversion therapy abroad in its human rights reports, classifying it as “acts of violence, discrimination, and other abuses based on sexual

Anchorage Daily News reports.The ban prevents licensed professionals from attempting conversion therapy on minors in the city, with those who continue to do so subject to a $500 fine, which stacks for each day that the ban is violated.“One day, this practice will be banned throughout the United States,” Assembly Chair Felix Rivera, who co-sponsored the ban, said.