Image: A demonstrator carrying a sign: “Self-Hatred is NOT Therapy.” Photo by Daniel Tobias via Wikimedia Commons.
How about some good news, and something good to support?
On Tuesday, April 25, 2017, Congressman Ted Lieu and 68 Members of Congress, as well as Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 to stop so-called “conversion therapy.” Conversion therapy – treatment to persuade an LGBTQ youth that they are actually straight – is both dangerous and utterly ineffective, yet frauds fleece families of thousands of dollars for these quack and often brutal “treatments.”
Read the text of the bill online.
Here is something we can SUPPORT in a call to our members of Congress!
A script, if you want one:
I’m calling to ask that Congressperson (or Senator) X vote FOR the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017. My name is Y, I live at Z, and I vote! My thanks to Congressperson or Senator X for for their time and attention to this important matter.
Jewish law demands demands that parents care for and protect their children. Conversion therapy has damaged the physical and mental health of countless young people; this quackery should not be permitted.
A father is obligated with regard to his son to circumcise him, and to redeem him if he is a firstborn son who must be redeemed by payment to a priest, and to teach him Torah, and to marry him to a woman, and to teach him a trade. And some say: A father is also obligated to teach his son to swim. – Kiddushin 29a
If you strike a child, strike them only with a shoelace. – Bava Batra, 21a
The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 has been endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Association of School Psychologists, School Social Work Association of America, American Counseling Association, National Association of Secondary School Principals, American Psychoanalytic Association, American School Counselor Association, Human Rights Campaign, National Center for Lesbian Rights, PFLAG National, National Center for Transgender Equality, and GLSEN.
Reblogged this on Journalism as Art and commented:
Conversion therapy has damaged the physical and mental health of countless young people; this quackery should not be permitted
Shalom, I notice that you address yourself as a Rabbi and quote Jewish “Law” but how does this fit in with The First Commandment in the Torah, “Go forth and multiply”? How can you honestly promote this unnatural lifestyle that cannot birth children and denies the very word of G-D?
There is nothing unnatural about love. Many gay men and lesbians, including myself, have children and fulfill the commandment to be fruitful and multiply.
Do you really think that leaving messages like this persuades anyone to your point of view?
Rabbi Adar, I’m sorry if my question offended you I’m genuinely trying to understand your point of view. Your correct there is nothing unnatural concerning love but rather my question is about the anatomical, emotional and spiritual divine order when G-D established the union of a man and woman in the Torah “This is why a man is to leave his father and mother and stick with his wife, and they are to be one flesh.” As a Rabbi speaking in the seat of Moshe, what case would you provide using scripture in the Tanakh that changes this divine union?