FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear banned the use of “conversion therapy” on minors in Kentucky on Wednesday.
The governor used his executive powers after Republicans who control the state legislature repeatedly blocked efforts to enact a state law banning the practice. Beshear said he would no longer wait for others to “do what’s right.”
“My faith teaches me that all children are children of God,” Beshear said during the signing ceremony at the Kentucky Capitol. “And where practices are endangering and even harming those children, we must act. The practice of so-called ‘conversion therapy’ hurts our children.”
[The teaching of Biblical truth has never hurt anyone; anal rape and fellatio of minors has hurt many. – HH]
RELATED: Kentucky Democrat proposes child sex dolls for pedophiles
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ‘GAY’: “Sex in public toilets isn’t at all uncommon … in the men’s rooms of Ivy League Colleges, and in the public lavatories, parks, and alleyways of every manor city in the United States. Theirs is the wretchedest of all gay excesses …. They masturbate in the urinals, wander totally naked up and down the length of the facility, and fellate one another in acrobatic positions in the open doorways of the stall. When they ejaculate-and they do–on the seats, walls, or floors, they leave it there to congeal into a nasty, highly identifiable puddle…” – CRAFTING BI/HOMOSEXUAL YOUTH, REGENT UNIVERITY LAW REVIEW
It was the latest action in a national debate over conversion therapy and the rights of LGBTQ+ children and their families.
The Kentucky event stirred many emotions. Activists for mental health and LGBTQ+ rights cheered the governor, but as he prepared to sign the ban, someone nearby shouted, “This is a denial of affirmation therapy!” Supporters drowned out the protest.
Among those in attendance was Zach Meiners, a 34-year-old filmmaker who said he wants young people to be spared the anguish and harm he endured during four years of therapy as a teenager, which caused him “anxiety and depression in ways that I’m still unraveling.”
“I can speak firsthand to how devastating it can be to someone’s mental health,” Meiners said in an interview. “And I consider myself very lucky to be a survivor.”
Republican state Rep. Killian Timoney shook Beshear’s hand after the signing, and expressed support for the ban. But another GOP lawmaker, state Rep. Josh Calloway, said the governor had defied the will of the legislature, which isn’t scheduled to reconvene until January.
“We are the lawmaking body, and laws should be made by people’s representatives,” Calloway said.
The Family Foundation, a socially conservative group in Kentucky, said Beshear’s order tramples on the rights of parents and suppresses religious expression. It referred to the ban as an “unlawful action,” perhaps signaling a legal challenge.
“This order, like previous failed legislative efforts, is designed to promote false LGBTQ ideologies and muzzle Christian counselors, therapists and pastors from helping children struggling with sexual orientation or gender identity confusion,” David Walls, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
The ban runs “roughshod over the First Amendment,” said Daniel Schmid, a legal executive with Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a Christian ministry …
