This was entirely predictable. WorldNetDaily is reporting that, after having been thoroughly smacked down by a three judge panel from the Ninth Circuit, Liberty Counsel is now requesting an en banc hearing of the Ninth Circuit so that they may, hopefully, be once again smacked down:
The ruling would prevent minors who want counseling regarding same-sex attractions, behavior or identity from getting help.
“Nor will licensed counselors be permitted to offer such counsel, despite the fact that their clients are currently benefiting from such counsel,” according to Liberty Counsel, which brought the case on behalf of minors who now are “significantly benefiting” from the counseling.
Now Liberty Counsel has filed a request for rehearing, arguing that the decision conflicts with precedent established by the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The petition cites precedents that reject “the statist notion that governmental power should supersede parental authority” and affirm that “the right to family association includes the right of parents to make important medical decisions for their children, and of children to have those decisions made by their parents rather than the state.”
We have been over this so many times, but while parental authority is held in high esteem in the United States, we also have laws to protect children from abusive parents. And sorry, Religious Right, but science says that “ex-gay” reparative therapy hurts kids. Just like people face legal consequences for refusing to get healthcare for their children (even if it’s because of their deeply held religious beliefs), states are starting to recognize that this sort of therapy isn’t therapy at all, and that a parent’s religious aversion to homosexuality isn’t grounds for giving them carte blanche to scar their kids for life at the hands of quacks like Joseph Nicolosi. Moving on:
Mathew Staver, chief counsel of Liberty Counsel, said the minors he represents “do not want to act on same-sex attractions, nor do they want to engage in such behavior.”
“They are greatly benefiting from this counseling. Their grades have gone up, their self-esteem has improved, and their relationships at home are much improved,” he said.
An argument could be made that the kids are being forced into a deeper hell, and that their relationships might be improving at home because their anti-gay parents actually believe that NARTH is going to zap the gay out of little Timmy.
Staver said legislators and judges in California “have essentially barged into the private therapy rooms of victimized young people and told them that their confusion, caused by the likes of a Jerry Sandusky abuser, is normal and they should pursue their unwanted and dangerous same-sex sexual attractions and behavior, regardless of whether those minors desire their religious beliefs to trump their unwanted attractions.”
And again with the Jerry Sandusky argument, which works on no intelligent human alive. Since we already know for a fact that sexual abuse has nothing to do with a person’s sexuality, it’s simply a cheap attempt to get people on their side by invoking the name of a notorious child rapist. Liberty Counsel, you’ll never learn, will you? This kind of messaging works on your followers, because your followers are already drunk on your Kool-Aid, and they’re not known for researching things for themselves. It doesn’t work in a court of law, where you actually have to back up what you say.
I suppose they use it because it’s literally all they have, in a world where the harsh light of reality negates every one of their bigoted beliefs.
[h/t Joe]
