Hearing the news today that Gov. Walz has signed an executive order banning "conversion therapy" on Minnesotans under age 18 put me in mind of a movie, Boy Erased, that I saw about 2.5 years ago. I think it's been mostly forgotten even though it stars Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, and, as a gay teen who is placed in a conversion therapy program by his conservative Christian parents (played by Crowe and Kidman), Lucas Hedges. I reviewed the movie favorably here. It persuaded me, almost accidentally, that conversion therapy, however discredited, is hard to kill because it's failure to convert anyone is profitable for the purveyors:
Another thing the movie suggests is that the conversion therapy biz, still legal in 36 states, is beset by a toxic interplay of Christian fundamentalism and garden-variety greed. You can give people lessons on whom to be sexually attracted to, generally or specifically, and augment the lessons with heavy doses of shame. But it doesn't work. So the "treatment" goes on and on. The desperate parents keep shelling out, and a benighted religious purpose is further corrupted by a sluice of cash.
Banning conversion therapy is exactly the kind of thing government ought to do. I can imagine people thinking that parents, not the state, must always be allowed to decide what's best for their kids. But even if you take that view (I don't), conversion therapy is still a business scam. Its practitioners' only available defense is that they are as confused as their patients' parents, but even in that case I suspect it's the payments that keep them from comprehending the truth.
Walz's executive action was needed because a bill before the legislature failed on account of unified Republican opposition. There is still no statute outlawing conversion therapy, and Walz's successor could rescind his order. John Helmberger, CEO of the Minnesota Family Council, released the following statement today:
This executive order will not end so-called "conversion therapy," since professional standards in mental health care already did that years ago. Instead, this will ban young people experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria from getting the voluntary, compassionate care they need.
I'll translate: The order will not end conversion therapy, it will only stop conversion therapy from being called "conversion therapy." The dolts who contribute money to the Family Council deserve more skilled obfuscation.
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