Waites last month introduced House Bill 716 (HB 716), which would, if passed, end the use of psychotherapy to “cure” minors of their sexual orientation.
Waites’ HB 716 would ban reparative therapy, which is the practice of using psychoactive techniques to “reorient” queer individuals.
The therapy, which is based on the notion that having homosexual tendencies is a neurological disorder, is currently legal in 46 states. However, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington D.C. have banned this procedure.
Waites told The Signal the bill was constructed to deter potential harm from Georgia’s youth.
“The primary purpose of this bill is to protect our children, young people, from treatment that has been proven ineffective,” she said. “This is not a gay bill, this is not an LGBT bill, this is a bill to protect our children.”
The Human Rights Campaign, the United States’ largest advocate for LGBTQ representation, reported that adolescents who participate in reorientation therapy are statistically more likely to hurt themselves or turn to drugs in comparison to youth who are accepted by society for their orientation and/or gender identity.
Waites said it’s crucial for society to examine legislation affecting the LGBTQ community.
“The American Psychological Association has ruled [reparative therapy] ineffective, and that it does not work,” she said. “Look at the strides that other states are making, such as New Jersey and California. It is my belief that it is time for us to move now, to make sure that we are protecting our children and our young folk.”
American Psychological Association has conducted research on the effects of conversion therapy and systematically disproved any scientific merit to psychotherapy.
Waites also discusses LGBTQ-community rights via freedom of expression.
“The United States was founded upon the right to religious freedom, the right to speak, the right be free and to exist… And frankly, if someone is LGBT or what have you, it’s really no one else’s personal business,” she said.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in March 2015, 4.2 percent of Atlanta’s population identifies as LGBTQ. That’s about 232,000 individuals.
Georgia State currently has 10 LGBTQ OrgSync-verified organizations.
Sophomore Olivia Maley, a queer-identifying individual of the LGBTQ community, looked at the impact of banning reparative therapy for adolescents through a parental scope.
“[Parents] often fall under heteronormative guidelines,” she said. “Their initial thought [when a child comes out] is often ‘that’s wrong because I want you to be straight.’”
However, often times a parent’s second thought is fear of outside treatment.
“My mom has voiced that concern before, like from anything from not shaving my armpits to being gay in public,” Maley said. “[She] really worries about what people are going to think of me… but there’s a line you have to draw, whether or not you’re going to support your child.”
Maley also said that the suppressive nature of being a queer adolescent in a strict or unaccepting household is enforced by parental values and structure.
“When you’re under 18, you’re under complete control of your parents… giving parents the right to put children through this therapy says being gay is wrong,” she said. “It’s like saying ‘the way you’re feeling is wrong, that’s why we have this therapy, to fix you.’”
Maura Ryan, senior sociology lecturer at Georgia State, said HB 716 is a step towards a greater understanding of divergent sexualities and identities.
“There are practical, positive consequences: LGBTQ youth wouldn’t be legally subjected to harmful, bullying practices that attempt to manipulate them out of their intimate sense of themselves,” she said. “This is also an important symbolic move toward a progressive society – one where gender and sexual variance is understood as a natural part of the human condition.”
Georgia State senior Ri Strydom, 21, identifies as trans man. He said, while this bill is a move towards equality, the idea of what is a “normal” or “correct” orientation or sexuality is deeply ingrained in our society.
“The thing with this bill is, it outlaws this type of therapy, which is great, but…the indoctrination of heteronormativity happens all the time,” Strydom said. “It happens unconsciously…it’s something that’s pervasive. So you’re taking away this extreme, which is good, but there’s still the underlying heteronormativity is still there. It’s a step, but it’s a small step.”
Actually, this bill takes away one’s freedom to choose whether or not they want to embrace a gay identity or explore their heterosexual potential. The APA admits that for *some* people, research shows that change is possible and that more research is needed to better understand the effects of therapy on same sex attractions. There are some who find therapy for depression, addiction, marital problems, etc. to be ineffective and some may say harmful, but we certainly don’t say that therapy for these issues should be outlawed! Lastly, therapy should not be forced on anyone, but available to all who are desiring help in reaching their goals, whatever their goals might be.
When I was a teen I too had a LOT of same-sex attractions. By the time I reached high school I was also “subjected to harmful, bullying practices that attempt to manipulate” me into joining the gay culture and accepting these attractions as some kind of permanent part of my “intimate sense” of myself that was as unchanging as my eye color. After spending 20 years in the gay lifestyle and doing more than my share of drugs, I wanted out. I wish I had the professional counseling in the 70s that I eventually got in the 90s. No more pressure. No more drugs. No more bullying. I’m out now. But I still have gay friends from the old days who have accepted my new identity as a “straight” guy, just as I continue to take their word for it when they tell me that THEY are still happy being “gay”. We’re ALL happy… now that we accept each other’s “gender and sexual variance”.
Reparative-type therapies worked for me! I only wish someone in my home church had known about it so I could have gotten it in my teens when it would have been easier and I could have gotten on to a healthy life sooner. Making therapy illegal means that children who’s eroticized same-sex attractions are the result of sexual abuse (about 1/3rd of men who identify as ‘gay’, nd significantly more of lesbians) will not be able to get the help they need to heal from the shame trauma which eroticizes the same-sex attractions. If this legislation passes, it will be harming more children.
I am an Ex-Gay who was told in the 1980-90s by the dishonest counseling profession that I was born a homosexual. In fact, I was abused by a same sex pedophile as a small child, developed same sex attraction, depression, addiction, and suicidal obsession and chose to live as an angry atheist homosexual for 35 years of misery. If I had had access to reparative therapy then, I may not have had to suffer a horrible homosexual life and found the healing I so desperately needed. In my 50s, through the grace of God and the power of Jesus Christ, I have been freed from the homosexual life and am being restored to the life God intended for me. Condemning child victims of sexual abuse to the homosexual gulag, as this legislation is intended to do, is cruel and inhuman punishment.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SEXUATION http://www.eterosessualita.com/423219819
How can people in authority dictate the legitimacy of counseling an induvidual chooses? I am almost 60 and have recieved counseling since I was 19 and suicidal because of my same sex attractions. I tried desperately to get it up with girls in High School and longed for male bonding but more than that I longed for family, to try to ne “normal”. I wanted more than anything to be a dad of my own offspring and for my kids to experience the love of their natural mother. I fantasized about being in a “normal” family. I left home at 14 determined to follow my dream and every step of the way I was being told I could not change. The more help I sought helped me to deepen my understanding of my self. Why I long for male bonding and what blocks a natural attraction toward the opposite sex. Therre are as many reasons as personal experiences that affect our desires and inhibitions. I dont like the label disorder but I don’t like the lie that change isnt possible either. To be told there is no hope for change was destructive for me. I wanted self control over my sexuality and I needed help for not being able to be attracted to the opposite sex and no one has the right to say I cant seek the help I want when my mental health is at risk. Through counseling I discovered three things that are usually labeled as all the same…. to be totally seperate situations. Same Sex Attraction is not the same as Homosexuality and is not the same as what is labeled Gay. I can be attrracted to the same sex for many reasons for example I was abandonded by my father and seperated from my brother very young and longed for their affection and closeness. Developing I idolized handsome naked men wanting to look like them wanted to be accepted as a man longing to be near them to be held and cuddled protected and accepted. I had no desire to be involed in an act of Homo”sex”uality I didn’t want to suck them or fuck them nor did I want that done yo me…… just to be held intimately and accepted physically and emotionally. Being labeled “Gay” made me angry I did not support promiscuous behaviour with orgies of multiple partners and needing to act or speek effeminate or have to be in the scene and vocal in front of others demanding rights to dress in drag and carry plastic penises in parades! I longed for healthy non sexual male bonding and was being told I must be gay and I had to accept it. Society does not need to accept what is being promoted as “Gay” Society does need to accept and protect each induvidual in their journey to wholeness without prejudice. We all come from different backgrounds some may believe they are the way they are genetically and even though that isnt scientificlly proven I know my attractions are from as far back as I can possibly eememer. I was eight when I was forced to strip naked against my will to swim nude at the YMCA for swim lessons with my ten other classmates but to be subjected to naked adult males swimming at the same time. Scared and scared for life of the images always wondering what is wrong with me because all I wanted to think about was the naked men with big cocks. At ten years old I had watched the movie Sybil starring Sally Feild as a troubled girl with multiple personalities. Her mother tormented her performing a female circumcision upon her as as a child. As the movie showed Sybil moaning in pain as her mother forced her way between the girls legs with a scalpel as the girl was tied down on a table, I felt sick visualizing this extreme violence and my mentally sick step father said nothing as I watched this with him in our home. My young sisters were sleeping and my mother was always away waitressing evening. To learn in Jr. High school in sex ed about girls monthly periods and their bleeding screwed up my attraction for the feminine for life. I was eventually engaged to be married to someone I lived but could not feel sexually attracted. Finially learning through therapy, being able to be open about the many factors that are part of what makes me tick, I was able to begin to put together peices of the puzzle and work toward healing the woundedness with therapists who just accepted me as I am without saying I had to follow a path and identify as someone I didn’t want to be. To this day I still have strong same sex attractions but I know why and I choose to excericise self control. I did marry hetro sexually and enjoyed being a father and husband even though sex was difficult at first and seemed so unattractive. I was affectionate and loving. Sex was just part of the relationship it wasn’t the deal breaker. I have through therapy met other men who have experienced a full range of sexual experiences with either sex and have been hurt or broken and want self control over their sexuality and healing. No regulatory body or governance has the right to say people cant explore their options for healing and support for their lifes choices. I support support groups and I honor the men who let me talk about my same sex attraction without judgement and without labels. I am and always will be a man wanting to stand strong amoung men and to experience their unconditional love and affection in healthy ways. Rejection by either sex is destructive and so is promiscuous sex.