NEWS PROVIDED BY
Liberty Counsel
March 5, 2021
WASHINGTON, March 5, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- The so-called "Equality Act" not only threatens the free exercise of religion and free speech, but it will also be used to prevent people of all ages who struggle with unwanted same-sex attractions, behavior, or gender confusion from getting the counseling they desire. HR 5 will be used to ban licensed and unlicensed counselors from providing consenting minors and adults with talk therapy.
Liberty Counsel represents professional counselors who have seen countless people who struggled with unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, and gender confusion experience true freedom.
For example, Ken stated under oath that without counseling at a time when he struggled with unwanted same-sex attractions, "I probably would have killed myself. I would not have been satisfied with a government-mandated gay identity."
Another client, David (pseudo name), testified under oath that: "When I was 5 years old, I was sexually molested by a 16-year-old high school boy who was also my neighbor. The internalization of this abuse and having no therapist available affected my behavior and resulted in social ostracism. I had traumatic experiences in perceiving and feeling that I was not really a male child. When I reached puberty and for many years after it, I found myself sexually attracted to men because of my earlier abuse. For all these years, I carried a feeling of immense and crushing shame for my same-sex attractions. During a period of twenty years following puberty, I became clinically depressed twice, dealt with tremendous anxiety, experienced obsessive compulsive disorder, and knew in my heart that I was very confused about my sexual orientation and gender identity. In the latter years of this twenty-year period, I found a course of treatment that truly helped me resolve the issues I had been experiencing."
The counseling that saved Ken's and David's lives will be banned by the "Equality Act."
Walt Heyer struggled with gender dysphoria as a result of being sexually abused as a boy by a family member, combined with his grandmother's decision to secretly clothe him as a girl. Unable to find a counselor to address his underlying issues, he went down a path in which he wanted to identify as a woman. Heyer took opposite-sex hormones and underwent surgery. However, after he experienced restoration and healing from a relationship with Jesus Christ, Heyer embraced his biological birth sex as a man. Now Heyer helps people struggling with gender dysphoria, many of whom have suicidal thoughts and deep regrets about their decisions to try and "change" their gender.
Heyer said, "I see the tragic consequences of polices to expand gender/sex beyond male and female, in the desperate letters I receive from those who regret gender transitioning and from the families of those who are still caught in the transgender delusion."
Liberty Counsel represents Dr. Christopher Rosik who holds a master's in theological studies and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. For more than 30 years, he has been a licensed counselor in California. He is also a professor at Fresno Pacific University and has been published more than 50 times in books or peer-reviewed journals about same-sex attraction and the Christian faith. Approximately 10 percent of his clients struggle with same-sex attractions, and they often complain of conflict or dissonance between their same-sex attractions or behaviors and their moral or religious beliefs. The "Equality Act" would ban Dr. Rosik from helping people.
The "Equality Act" strips clients and patients of their right to seek the counseling they desire. No one, including both licensed and unlicensed counselors, will be exempt under the application of this bill. Pastors will not even be allowed to discuss or advise someone who is seeking help from gender confusion and unwanted desires.
Talk therapy or counseling is a lot like a GPS map system. The clients tell the counselor the direction in which they want to go, and the counselor helps them reach that destination. However, the "Equality Act" attempts to ban one viewpoint of counseling—the viewpoint that people do not have to be chained to their unwanted desires, behaviors or confusion. In fact, it will mandate that any counsel only promotes LGBT and Q. The "Equality Act" ensures counselors and pastors cannot act as a GPS to help people reach their objective. If they are silenced, and if this counsel is banned, it is no exaggeration to say that many people will commit suicide.
Research shows that 85 percent of young people who experience gender confusion resolve it naturally without any intervention at all. They simply grow out of it. But the dictatorial "Equality Act" seeks to cement gender confusion, and no one—not even the person seeking counsel—can object.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "This outrageous so-called 'Equality Act' will prevent people struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions, behavior, or gender confusion from receiving the life-saving help they desire. The 'Equality Act' substitutes the government's agenda for personal choice. There is no place for the federal government in the private counseling room."
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SOURCE Liberty Counsel
CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org
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