WorldNetDaily has long worked to whitewash and rebrand anti-LGBT conversion therapy, mostly by denying the coercive aspect of it. Bob Unruh gave it another shot in a Dec. 15 article that dishonestly portrays what it is and nonsensically claims that being LGBT is an “ideology”:
For a number of years already, state and local governments that abide by the leftist ideology found in the LGBT movement have tried to promote their beliefs by censoring ideas that contradict.
Specifically, they’ve labeled ordinary talk therapy delivered by counselors to patients who want to rid themselves of various LGBT ideologies as “conversion” therapy and banned it, despite the fact that infringes on the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
They demand that pro-LGBT counseling is acceptable, but anything that contradicts the ideology must be banned.
Multiple court cases have been filed over the fight, and the decisions have been inconsistent. Some leftist judges have ruled that such speech can be banned; others have said it’s protected.
What’s been missing so far is a definitive ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that protects the speech rights of those who don’t support LGBT indoctrination.
Unruh refused to admit that anti-LGBT conversion therapy is indoctrination. He then touted the legal case that homophobes are currently placing their hopes in:
It is Liberty Counsel, which successfully has defeated a number of those speech restrictions in court, that has filed a brief with the high court urging a review of the Chiles v. Salazar case, which involves “a Colorado law that violates the free speech of licensed counselors who help clients deal with unwanted gender confusion or same-sex attractions,” Liberty Counsel’s report said.
That leftist state’s law bans “any counseling that might help minors change their behaviors, sexual orientation, or gender expressions even when the client wishes to do so,” the report said.
The case at issue involves professional counselor Kaley Chiles who is subject to the state’s First Amendment-violating ban on certain words during counseling sessions.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, an often-overturned court reflecting the leftism common in Colorado and Denver, claimed in a recent decision that talk counseling is “professional conduct,” subject to being banned, and not “speech.”
That’s even though talk therapy in a counseling session is “made up entirely of speech.”
Unruh left out the part that the law being targeted is called the Minor Conversion Therapy Law, and he ignores the actual issue, as a more reputable media outlet explained:
In Colorado, however, parents and guardians of people under the age of 18 can legally bring their child to therapy, regardless of whether they want to go or share their parents’ religious beliefs.
“For children who are still under the control of their parents, and those parents do not agree with or support children who come out as LGBTQ+, this has been a way of controlling the children and trying to change them into the image that the parent sees as acceptable,” said [state Sen. Dafna] Michaelson Jenet.
Unruh then touted alleged research from the right-wing Christian group the Ruth Institute claiming that “Not only is there no evidence that efforts to change sexual orientation, which Sullins refers to by the acronym SOCE, increase the risk of suicide among those who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. There also is evidence that such efforts actually decrease the risk of suicide or thoughts of suicide among them.” He also weirdly framed laws that ban conversion therapy “censorship.”