October 31, 2014 5:07 PM

Mental health professionals ask the state to take action preventing so-called reparative therapy for gays

“…some ideologues are still trying to sell so-called ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy.”

Some mental health professionals are asking state licensing boards to adopt rules that would prevent anyone in Texas to offer what’s called “reparative therapy" for homosexuals. You may remember, the Republican Party of Texas adopted a platform plank this year in support of such discredited therapy.

It was such an embarrassment to party leaders that RPT Chairman Steve Munisteri took the unusual step of denouncing that plank of the platform.

“For anybody that thinks that may be the possibility: Do they think they can take a straight person to a psychiatrist and turn them gay?” Munisteri told Texas Public Radio News back in June.

“More than 40 years ago, the American Psychiatric Association removed same-sex orientation from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--after two decades of research demonstrated that there is and never has been any scientific basis for such a classification,” said Chuck Smith, Executive Director of Equality Texas. “But, some ideologues are still trying to sell so-called ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy. It’s time for the state licensing agencies for mental health professionals to go on record against these fraudulent and often dangerous techniques,” Smith said.