A second ruling came down today in California from a separate case dealing with SB1172, which bans the child abuse of minors in the guise of a phony treatment that is termed “reparative therapy.”

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller issued a ruling Tuesday that will allow the ban on “conversion” therapy to take effect on Jan. 1. Reporter Lisa Leff writes, “Her ruling came in a lawsuit filed by four counselors, two families, a professional organization for practitioners and a Christian therapists group seeking to overturn the law. On Monday night, Mueller’s colleague, U.S. District Judge William Shubb, handed down a somewhat competing ruling.”

“We are gratified that common sense has returned to the California courts and that gay youth appear to be safe from predatory practitioners,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Reparative therapy is harm posing as help and contradicts the guidelines of every respected medial and mental health organization in America.”

Behind the scenes, TWO is building a bulletproof case against reparative therapy that will highlight what the backward techniques actually are and what its practitioners truly believe. Once the majority of Americans realize what it is, they are not going to support it and will agree that reparative therapy should be banned for minors.

It appears that the law is scheduled to go forward as planned.

California’s attorney general, Kamala D. Harris, said, “My office will continue to protect California minors by vigorously defending this law.”

However, one of the fundie groups fighting the law pledges to not give up.

Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, the conservative legal Christian group that challenged the law before Judge Shubb, said his group was “ready to fight this battle all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times quotes legal experts that say the issue is somewhat murky. As the court challenges move forward, they will likely end up in the appeals court:

The California ban on conversion therapies drew the state into murky legal waters, said Eugene Volokh, a professor and constitutional expert at the U.C.L.A. law school. “There’s a good deal of uncertainty about how to apply the First Amendment to professional speech to clients and even more uncertainty in the case of minors,” he said. “It’s not clear how this is ultimately going to play out.”

Professor Volokh predicted that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals would take action in the months ahead to resolve the conflicting judicial rulings.

Let’s keep fighting and hope for the best. If the quacks think we will ever give up or surrender an inch, they have another thing coming.