Legal Groups Sue to Overturn California Gay Therapy Ban

Religion Today | Updated: Jan 04, 2013

Legal Groups Sue to Overturn California Gay Therapy Ban

Two federal lawsuits have been filed against California's new law banning "reparative therapy" for teens struggling with their sexual orientation, CBN News reports. Beginning Jan. 1, licensed professional therapists in California will no longer be permitted to tell anyone under the age of 18 that it is possible to change sexual orientation. "[The therapies] have no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery," said Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the ban into law Oct. 1. However, two legal groups, the Pacific Justice Institute and Liberty Counsel, have filed suit this week. The Pacific Justice Institute, who says the law violates First Amendment and equal protection rights, is naming a plaintiff who says he has benefited from the reparative therapy. "When it benefits some people and may or may not benefit other people, there's no basis for the state to step in," Pacific Justice Institute attorney Matthew McReynolds said. Liberty Counsel filed a civil rights suit Thursday, naming as plaintiffs two Southern California boys, ages 14 and 15, who have been undergoing the therapy. The suit claims the ban violates the teens' freedom of speech and freedom of religion by denying them the chance to be cured of "unwanted same-sex attraction."

Legal Groups Sue to Overturn California Gay Therapy Ban