New Jersey Gay Activists Backpedaling on Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act
On May 6, Citizens United Against the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act in New Jersey, also known as Senate Bill 2278, held a press conference to blow the whistle on gay activists who are spreading false and misleading information about the nature of sexual orientation change effort (SOCE) therapy for minors. If passed, this legislation would take away the rights of young people with unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) to seek counseling from licensed mental health practitioners in New Jersey to overcome homosexual feelings.
The bill is being dubbed the Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act, because when sexually abused children are denied treatment to resolve the symptoms of trauma, criminals like convicted pedophile and former Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky, go undiscovered, sometimes for decades.
If this legislation becomes law, monsters like Sandusky will have more protection to victimize, because children who develop SSA as a result of abuse may never tell their parents. They may never tell their parents because organizations such as Garden State Equality, the largest gay activist group in New Jersey, are indoctrinating young people to believe that homosexuality is in-born, and if a child believes they are born gay, then the possibility of resolving homosexual feelings that result from sex abuse may never enter their mind.
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May 15 was supposed to be the nail in the coffin for New Jersey opponents of SOCE, who were attempting to push this legislation through a partisan legislature and put pressure on Republican Governor Chris Christie to take sides in an election year. After successfully moving the bill out of the Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee, activists had secretly scheduled an Assembly hearing for this week.
In fact, Gay City News reported on May 8 that Dr. Jack Drescher, a prominent New York gay psychiatrist, was scheduled to testify on May 15 before the New Jersey Assembly in favor of the bill. But after last week's press conference, activists are backpedaling from their aggressive agenda, hoping to create distance from the Sandusky-branded bill and fraudulent testimony that was exposed after the initial March 18 hearing.
During the March hearing, a host of gay activists brought forth a parade of horrible accusations against SOCE, all based on unsubstantiated and anecdotal evidence. But what may have sealed the bill's fate was the fraudulent testimony given by Brielle Goldani, a New Jersey transgendered woman who lied about being tortured in an Ohio "conversion therapy camp" called "True Directions," a place that turns out to exist only in a 1999 movie starring drag queen Ru Paul.
At the conclusion of last week's press conference, an uninvited and unknown representative of Garden State Equality took the podium, and in bizarre fashion, answered questions from the media in an attempt to defend the discredited New Jersey gay activists. Visibly uncomfortable, the representative stammered back and forth, hands in his pockets, looking at the ground with a mischievous smile as if he was a child caught with his hands in the cookie jar.
Unwilling to validate his accusations of an additional six "conversion therapy camps" in Ohio that are allegedly "abusive" to minors with any corroborated evidence, his boss Troy Stevenson, Executive Director of Garden State Equality, stepped in and was once again asked: "Tell us, what kinds of abuse do therapists do and what are the names of those camps in Ohio" so they can be investigated.
Stevenson promised to provide all members of the press corps the names of these camps right after the press conference (which he did not and still has not provided, after multiple e-mails and phone calls to his office) and then went onto say: "The abuse we are talking about is taking a child, who has no consent over the therapy that is happening to them, and they're being told there is something fundamentally wrong with an immutable part of their character." He went onto say, "The American Psychiatric Association . . . finds this type of (sexual orientation change efforts) to be an abusive practice."
First, in 2008 the American Psychological Association stated that homosexuality was not an immutable part of a person's character: "There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation."
Second, the American Psychiatric Association has never said that SOCE therapy is an "abusive practice," and further, Stevenson claims that parents who send their homosexual-oriented children for therapy is akin to child abuse and that these children do not have any rights or consent, which is also inaccurate. Stevenson's statements are completely false, and he is misleading the public, which is why he has not provided the names of these so-called "conversion therapy torture camps" or any citations to back up his claims.
Now that their backs are against the wall, New Jersey gay activists have been forced to cancel the May 15 Assembly committee hearing and go back to the drawing board. When they reschedule the committee hearing (most likely in June) they will be forced to provide validated and substantiated evidence to support their claims that SOCE is "abusive" and "harmful," which they cannot. Additionally, to prevent another Kangaroo Court-style hearing, such was seen on March 18, the New Jersey Assembly would be wise to require all witnesses to testify under oath, under threat of perjury, so that "tortured transgendered women" like Brielle Goldani stay away this time.
