Around New England

Maine House Committee Recommends Banning Sexual Orientation ‘Conversion Therapy’

March 8, 2018

The language in the anti-conversion-therapy bill that cleared a key committee in the Maine House of Representatives offers no protection for Christian counselors whom parents might ask to try to guide their children away from same-sex attraction.

Supporters of the bill say coercion and shame should not be used to deal with sexual orientation, and that homosexuality shouldn’t be discouraged.

Opponents say the bill would infringe on the rights of parents to raise children as they see fit.

A minority on the committee wanted to ban electroshock therapy and ice baths, but the version of the bill that the majority on the committee voted for bans any kind of conversion therapy.

The head of the Christian Civic League of Maine expressed shock and disappointment with the version of the bill that emerged.

“Parents and their children should be able to pursue help and therapy in accordance to their values,” Carrol Conley, the league’s director, told lawmakers, according to the Portland Press Herald. “I wish I could express how utterly flabbergasted people are when I discuss [the bill]. The thought that the government would prohibit a parent and their child seeking to find a licensed professional to discuss a minor’s gender confusion or unwanted same-sex attraction from a faith perspective is Orwellian.”