5/8/12: Democrat committee denies sexual-identity counseling to molested children

SAVECALIFORNIA.COM NEWS RELEASE
May 8, 2012 -- For Immediate Release

Democrat Committee Denies Sexual-Identity Counseling to Molested Children
SB 1172 denies rights of loving parents and penalizes good counselors

Sacramento, California -- A Democrat-controlled committee of the California State Senate has advanced a bill that prohibits sexual-identity counseling for children who are molestation victims.

SB 1172 by Senator Ted Lieu of Torrance prohibits counselors from providing reparative therapy to minors, and heavily regulates and permit penalties against counselors who provide reparative therapy to adults. The bill today passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 3-1 vote, with only Democrats in support, and heads to the Senate floor, where the margin of Democrats' control is even greater.

"The majority of people do not support an intolerant bill like this, which infringes upon God-given parental rights, as well as consumer rights, free speech rights, and religious freedom," said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, which promotes moral virtues for the common good. "If a child is raped or molested and, as a result of this physical and emotional trauma, is confused about his or her sexual identity, loving parents have the moral obligation to seek and find the best counseling they can to help their abused child embrace the truth that heals and reject the lies that harm."

"The data shows environmental factors shape gender-identity confusion, rather than biological factors, given the absence of a homosexual genome," Thomasson said. "The professional counseling that an abused child receives is often the key to the child's recovery from abuse and overall mental health. Intolerant of people's beliefs and unloving to abused children, SB 1172 would lock abused boys and girls in a state of sexual exploitation, prohibiting loving parents from acquiring and paying for professional services to help heal their hurting child's heart and mind."

At Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, SB 1172's author claimed the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Manual (2000) does not list or otherwise address "sexual orientation" as a mental disorder. Yet when a child is molested and has resultant distress and pain, this is a mental disorder under the DSM-IV:

The American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders includes as a mental disorder "a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, or an important loss of freedom." (http://www.psychiatry.org/practice/dsm and http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html)

"The ruling Democrats, in control of the California State Legislature for a half century, have spent more than a dozen years passing multiple sexual indoctrination laws to brainwash children in K-12 public schools," Thomasson said. "Now Democrat legislators want to make sure that the kids they are sexually confusing in government schools won't get help to set them straight, even when their own parents desperately want help for their child and will pay for it out of their own pockets. SB 1172 is essentially double sexual indoctrination of children by the Democrat politicians."

"Parents have the God-given responsibility to protect their children from present distress and from needlessly suffering pain or death," said Dr. Paul Cameron, Ph.D, a leading researcher and clinician, and chairman of the Family Research Institute in Colorado Springs. "SB 1172, in the name of pseudo-science, would deny mothers and fathers the ability to obtain professional help to protect their boys and girls. The way to protect young people from suicide is to tell them their innate worth and their personal responsibility to make healthy choices, not tell them they have no choice, which depresses individuals struggling with sexual identity." (See "Separation/divorce and child and adolescent completed suicide," Columbia University, New York, 1998: In a social-psychological autopsy of 120 consecutive suicides of predominately males under age 20, fewer than 5 of these suicides were involved with homosexuality, with none appearing attributable to homosexuality.)

"Sexual activities and sexual preferences, especially in the case of children, can be modified and changed," Cameron explained. "It is ethically wrong to prohibit parents from seeking and receiving professional assistance to help their own children with serious problems like this."

To help California parents understand and respond to the sexual pressures being placed on their children through public schools, entertainment media, and negative peer pressure, SaveCalifornia.com has created "Not Born This Way," which includes assistance for anyone struggling with sexual identity.

-- end --

SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization standing strong for moral virtues for the common good. We represent children and families in the areas of marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.