By Mary Slosson
SACRAMENTO, Nov 30 (Reuters) – A Christian legal group urged
a federal judge on Friday to halt a landmark California law that
bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality
from being used on children and teenagers, calling the law a
violation of privacy and free speech.
California’s Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban
into law in September, making the nation’s most populous state
the first to ban so-called conversion therapy among youths. Gay
rights advocates say the therapy can psychologically harm gay
and lesbian youths.
“What we have here is the state coming into the
doctor-patient, client-counselor relationship and saying that
you can only present one viewpoint,” attorney Mathew Staver, the
dean of the evangelical Liberty University law school, told the
court in seeking an injunction to halt the law pending legal
challenges.
He was arguing on behalf of the National Association for
Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and the American
Association of Christian Counselors, as well as unnamed
individuals who sued shortly after the law was signed.
The law, due to go into effect on Jan. 1, bars therapists
from performing sexual-orientation change counseling with
children and teenagers under 18 and was supported by the
California Psychological Association among other groups.
Passage of the law marked a major victory for gay rights
advocates who say the treatment, also called reparative therapy,
has no medical basis because homosexuality is not a disorder.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case argue that the law
violates constitutionally protected rights to free speech and
freedom of religion, and denies the rights of parents to choose
how to raise their children.
Attorneys for the state were joined by lawyers from Equality
California, which was a sponsor of the bill, in arguing that
there is substantial evidence that the practice causes harm to
those who undergo it.
The judge in the case, Kimberly Mueller, expressed concern
during the hearing that banning licensed practitioners from
offering the therapy would only drive parents to seek out the
treatment from “unlicensed quacks” or out-of-state providers.
She said she was likely to rule next week in the case, filed
against Brown and other state officials. Another similar suit
seeking a separate injunction against the law will be argued in
federal court on Monday.
(Reporting by Mary Slosson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and
Mohammad Zargham)
