Recently, California passed a bill banning the use of a controversial form of psychotherapy, known as reparative or conversion therapy. Quoted directly from Wikipedia- "conversion therapy comprises efforts by mental health professionals and pastoral care providers to convert lesbians and gay men to heterosexuality by techniques including aversive treatments, such as 'the application of electric shock to the hands and/or genitals,' and 'nausea-inducing drugs administered simultaneously with the presentation of homoerotic stimuli'".
These therapies have absolutely no scientific or medical evidence, and are driving the youth of America to depression and suicide, being forced into believing their natural born instincts are unnatural or wrong. Sexual orientation is not a choice, nor a mental disorder, and attempts to change such a thing can cause extreme damage to a persons mental and physical state of health. The fact that we actually have a therapeutic method of correcting sexual orientation sickens me, and the thought that parents are sending their children to these sessions leaves me stunned. The banning of conversion therapy will protect children from the intolerance and fear of their own parent or guardians, since they would be unable to deny the therapy themselves. A study on the issue of family acceptance conducted at San Francisco State University found that compared with LGBT youth who were not rejected by their parents because of their gay or transgender identity, highly rejected LGBT youth were 8 times more likely to commit suicide, 3 times more likely to turn to illicit substances, and 3 times more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease. All because intolerant parents could not stand having a homosexual child.