The U.S. Supreme Court is looking at a case from Colorado about whether therapists should be allowed to perform "conversion therapy" on LGBTQ+ youth. The author is deeply concerned, believing the court's conservative majority will side with the therapist and call this harmful practice "free speech."
The writer argues that conversion therapy isn't real therapy at all—it's psychological torture that has been condemned by nearly every major medical group. It's an old, abusive practice based on the false idea that there is something to "cure."
The author feels the court's decision is already made and that the justices are biased, consistently ruling against LGBTQ+ rights under the banner of "religious freedom."To show the real-life damage, the article tells the story of Andrew Hartzler, who was sent to conversion therapy when he was 14. He describes the experience as crushing.
He says the sessions "put me in a suffocating box," where he was taught that his feelings were sinful. "If I was walking down the street and noticed a guy who caught my eye," he recalled, "I was told it meant I wasn’t praying enough or reading the Bible enough."
He calls the process "spiritual manipulation disguised as therapy" and explains that to survive, he had to pretend it worked. "I told them what they wanted to hear... I learned how to fake being fixed."
Hartzler warns about the danger of the court making the wrong decision: "If the Supreme Court rules that banning conversion therapy violates free speech, they’re putting one therapist’s right to speak above the health and safety of millions of kids."
He makes it clear that the practice is a failure that only causes pain, stating, "Conversion therapy will never make anyone straight, because there’s nothing to fix."
The author concludes that if the court rules in favor of the therapist, it will send a devastating message that the law protects those who want to harm queer kids, and this dangerous practice could become protected across the country.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/sham-oral-arguments-conversion-therapy-130004534.html