Reparative therapy for minors with same-sex attraction (Illinois)

SPRINGFIELD, IL, April 17, 2014 (LifeSiteNews) – The Illinois House voted last week to reject a bill that would have banned reparative therapy for minors with unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA). It is the fifth state to vote down a ban on the practice in recent months, following high profile debates over the issue in California and New Jersey, which both instated bans last year.

Christopher Doyle, an ex-gay activist and president of Voice of the Voiceless, said following the vote that he thought the decision was a win for free speech and individual medical rights.

Despite the objections of homosexual activists, a growing number of ex-gays say the therapy can be successful, and that it helped them to work through their confusion about their sexuality and go on to lead normal heterosexual lives. Some of them spoke to Illinois politicians in the weeks leading up to the vote, an action Doyle credits with the failure of the ban.

“Legislatures around the country are now waking up to the reality that ex-gays are a fact and gay activists’ stories of ‘therapy torture’ are fiction,” said Doyle. “We applaud the many lawmakers in Illinois who met with ex-gays, heard their stories of change, and refused to listen to the lies of anti-ex-gay activists like Wayne Besen, who is now headquartered in Chicago and failed miserably in his own liberal-dominated state to get this legislation passed. It goes to show that truth really does win out – when ex-gays speak up, politicians listen.”