Fascinating article:
Mathew Shurka was 16 years old when he fell in love with a boy his age. Shurka had started experimenting with boys a few years earlier, but this was different. Confused about his feelings, Shurka consulted his father and received, in his words, the greatest answer a son could ask for.
I love you; Im going to be by your side, Shurka remembers his father telling him. Whatever we need to do, well take care of it.
In the days that followed, however, Shurka says his father began to worry about what having a gay son would actually mean. What kind of challenges would he face in school? In the working world? Would he be able to have a family? Shurkas father went in search of support and wound up finding a licensed therapist who told him that conversion therapy could cure his sons homosexuality.
Over the next five years, Shurkas parents spent tens of thousands of dollars on a discredited form of psychotherapy that nearly tore their family apart. Under his doctors orders, Shurka didnt speak to his mother or sisters for years, took Viagra to have sex with women, and searched desperately for some memory of childhood trauma which, according to conversion therapists, is the root cause of all homosexuality.
Now 27, Shurka is an advocate in a growing movement to outlaw the discredited practice of conversion therapy for LGBT minors, a movement that has recently received the support of President Obama, the surgeon general, and a number of state and federal lawmakers.
Last week, the LGBT advocacy groups Human Rights Campaign and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) released model legislation for state lawmakers looking to ban licensed medical health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on LGBT youths.
Just days before the sample legislation was released, the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration issued a report concluding that there is no credible research to support the idea that gender identity or sexual orientation can be altered through cognitive or behavioral therapy, and that such attempts to intervene in an adolescents sexual orientation, gender identity or expression are coercive, can be harmful, and should not be part of behavioral health treatment.
Much more to read here: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/a-look-ins...150304129.html
Quote:
Mathew Shurka was 16 years old when he fell in love with a boy his age. Shurka had started experimenting with boys a few years earlier, but this was different. Confused about his feelings, Shurka consulted his father and received, in his words, the greatest answer a son could ask for.
I love you; Im going to be by your side, Shurka remembers his father telling him. Whatever we need to do, well take care of it.
In the days that followed, however, Shurka says his father began to worry about what having a gay son would actually mean. What kind of challenges would he face in school? In the working world? Would he be able to have a family? Shurkas father went in search of support and wound up finding a licensed therapist who told him that conversion therapy could cure his sons homosexuality.
Over the next five years, Shurkas parents spent tens of thousands of dollars on a discredited form of psychotherapy that nearly tore their family apart. Under his doctors orders, Shurka didnt speak to his mother or sisters for years, took Viagra to have sex with women, and searched desperately for some memory of childhood trauma which, according to conversion therapists, is the root cause of all homosexuality.
Now 27, Shurka is an advocate in a growing movement to outlaw the discredited practice of conversion therapy for LGBT minors, a movement that has recently received the support of President Obama, the surgeon general, and a number of state and federal lawmakers.
Last week, the LGBT advocacy groups Human Rights Campaign and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) released model legislation for state lawmakers looking to ban licensed medical health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on LGBT youths.
Just days before the sample legislation was released, the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration issued a report concluding that there is no credible research to support the idea that gender identity or sexual orientation can be altered through cognitive or behavioral therapy, and that such attempts to intervene in an adolescents sexual orientation, gender identity or expression are coercive, can be harmful, and should not be part of behavioral health treatment.