May I say right now, before you dive in, my impulse here is not just NO, but HELL NO.
The Texas Republican Party has endorsed so-called "reparative therapy" for gays, under a new policy statement given final approval at its annual convention on Saturday.
The new anti-gay language was pushed through without debate at the Fort Worth conference as roughly 7,000 delegates ratified a party platform that tea party groups succeeded in pushing further to the right, including winning a harder line on immigration.
One influential tea party group called Texas Eagle Forum had urged the party to support psychological treatments that seek to turn gay people straight. It comes after Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie last fall signed a law banning such therapies on minors, and California enacted a similar law.
The Fort Worth Convention Hall cheered when party leaders announced that Christie finished a distant 11th in a 2016 presidential straw poll.
But 'Rudy Oeftering, vice president of the gay conservative group Metroplex Republicans, said: "There's a very, very small group of people who want to keep the party in the past. We were here today to try to pull the party into the future.
"The only way the party can go into the future is to start listening to young people, to start listening to people who have gay family members."
Oeftering and allies had lined up to speak against the therapy language that had been added to the draft platform earlier this week. But they never got a chance to address delegates, because a parliamentary motion to approve the full platform was called first.
Under the new plank, the Texas Republican Party recognises "the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle."
The American Psychological Association and other major health organisations have condemned such counselling, which generally try to change a person's sexual orientation or to lessen their interest in engaging in same-sex sexual activity. The groups say the practice should not be used on minors because of the danger of serious psychological harm.
Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/08/texas-republicans-vote-to-adopt-gay-conversion-policy
Now the reason why I say HELL NO? Homosexuality is not covered in the DSM V. A law which promotes treatment for a none-recognized mental illness can be warped in any way the State wishes. What is to stop California (for example) adopting a similar law stating that gun owners should be encouraged to seek conversion therapy? This is a stupid idea. It's not a slippery slope, it is a parabolic drop.