Minnesota Refuses to Legislate Against Medicaid Paying for Pray the Gay Away

Senator asks Sen. Dibble if he believes the power of Jesus Christ can redeem anyone?
By Melanie Nathan, April 25, 2012.

Monday, Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis) offered an amendment to a larger omnibus health policy bill that would prohibit state Medicaid dollars from being paid for any “reparative or conversion” therapies geared toward changing an individual’s sexual orientation.

Sen. Dibble’s amendment, which mirrors the language of a bill he introduced earlier in the session for which requested hearings were denied, was defeated on a largely party line vote, 27-40.

Commenting on the amendment Sen. Dibble said, “My amendment simply says that taxpayers would no longer have to pay the bill for therapies that do real damage to individuals and are based on a particular, narrow religious perspective.”

It is now well accepted that ex-gay therapy is bogus and reparative therapy simply does not work.

Just this month Dr. Robert Spitzer expressed a wish to retract his 2003 Archives of Sexual Behavior paper on highly religious individuals who said their sexual orientation was changed by reparative therapy.

Every mainline counseling and mental health professional organization within Minnesota and across the country has come to understand that being gay or lesbian is normal and natural. Research shows that changing a person’s orientation is not possible. These professional bodies more recently have begun to actively discourage efforts to subject individuals to any form of therapy or counseling that would try to change their orientation or to represent being gay or lesbian as anything but normal, citing voluminous research that shows the harm these treatments cause.

Recent events in Minnesota, such as Gay U.S.A.’s undercover operation at Bachmann & Associates (1), show that these clinics, under the guise of professional, objective psychological counseling, are delivering what amounts to religious instruction on the morality of being gay or lesbian, going so far as to attempt to “pray the gay away” for their clients.

Sen. Dibble went on to say, “I’m disappointed that the Senate majority Republicans, once again, have affirmed their hostility to the dignity of all Minnesotans.”

Footnotes:

(1) Kristina Lapinski, a lesbian, from GAY U.S.A. the Movie went undercover to the Bachmann Clinic where the counselor provided her with a Bible and prayer. Kristina was asked by the Clinic if she wanted to bill the counseling session to her medical insurance, but Kristina declined. See Article at gayusathemovie.com/2012/04/lesbian-filmmaker-prays-the-gay-away-at-bachmann-associates/