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bubonickitten:tockthewatchdog:sauvagii:cisnowflake:drbrianbae:cisnowflake:egalitarian-vanguard:cisnowflake:So uhmSource? Or do I have fucking work to comment on this shit?http://www.snopes.com/mike-pence-supported-gay-conversion-therapy/ so basically he still sucks, but not as much?YupLmao are we really gonna pretend “therapy to change sexual behavior” isn’t conversion therapy?I did a long piece on conversion therapy earlier this year, I interviewed a conversion therapist for two hours and I spoke to someone who had been through conversion therapy and fights to legislate against it for a similar length of time. I read about it at length.And what I found out is that this is what conversion therapy IS now. They don’t admit that it’s conversion therapy. They call it “sexual orientation change efforts”. They hide behind the fact that some adults go into it “voluntarily” out of self-loathing. They do their best to obscure the fact that they do it to minors who are brought in by their parents, and that the consent is given by the parents. They obscure that they are fake therapists who interrogate and bully children and do everything they can to maximize the shame we as lgbt people feel. They are not properly monitored or regulated because they are not real licensed therapists. There is no regulatory body for these shitheads. Don’t get it twisted. These people understand how unpopular conversion therapy is, they realize liberals have won the culture war and outright, open homophobia is diminishing. They’re sneakier than ever. But conversion therapy is the same as it’s ever been and these people are exactly as loathsome and disgusting as they ever were. Mike Pence is a virulent homophobe who thinks we are diseased and need to be fixed. Don’t forget that for a single second. I was just talking to my mom about this yesterday bc she saw that Snopes link on Facebook in response to someone calling Pence homophobic and asked me about it, SO: I think the Snopes article is being super disingenuous here. At face value you could maybe say, hey, “changing sexual behavior” - that could be referring to promoting safe sex practices, right? Nope. Mike Pence is anything but an advocate of safe sex. He’s a proponent of defunding Planned Parenthood (he’s actually the guy who introduced a bill to end all federal funding for Planned Parenthood) and he thinks advocating condom usage is “too liberal” and “too modern” as a method of preventing STDs (he prefers abstinence-only approaches). So, no - he’s not talking about safe sex. Snopes isn’t paying attention to the context in which Pence was talking about these “programs that change sexual behavior” - namely, his policy to divert HIV/AIDS funding to “programs which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior,” which was included in his 2000 Congressional campaign platform under the section “Strengthening the American Family” with all of his anti-LGBTQ+ policies. Here’s the section, for anyone who doesn’t want to click through the links:• Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage.• Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexual’s as a “discreet and insular minority” entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.• Congress should support the reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act only after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus. Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.He’s talking about ending HIV/AIDS funding (AIDS being something heavily associated with the gay community since the AIDS crisis in the 80s) to “programs which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior” in the same few paragraphs in which he talks about his anti-LGBTQ+ policies. And the sentence “to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus” - within a few sentences of talking about how LGBTQ+ people don’t deserve protection or equality? Yeah, he’s talking about LGBTQ+ people, guys. (Btw, he basically contributed to an HIV outbreak in Indiana due to those policies, so.) Not to mention, “protecting the traditional family” and similar phrases are often used by conservatives to describe anti-LGBTQ+ agendas. Politicians are good at hiding horrible stances behind words that at face value seem innocuous. Mike Pence doesn’t have to literally say “I support electroshock therapy against gay kids” - it’s implied in his support for these so-called “programs which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior”. There are a lot of different methods (all abusive and ineffective) used in “ex-gay”/conversion therapy - Mike Pence doesn’t have to specify which particular methods he does and doesn’t support, because they’re all bad and he’s implicitly condoning all of them if he supports any of these programs. TL;DR: Don’t let the dude off the hook because of semantics. The fact that the phrase “programs which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior” appears in conjunction with his other anti-LGBTQ+ policies, coupled with the fact that Mike Pence has a history of not advocating safe sex practices and of attacking organizations that promote safe sex practices, indicates exactly what he meant and who he was talking about when he was talking about changing sexual behavior. Plus, on the Snopes page itself? Republicans were hit with a similar accusation in July 2016, when their national platform included the following phrase:We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.When asked whether that statement represented support for “conversion therapy,” Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus replied: It’s not in the platform.“It’s not in the platform”? Yeah, that’s not a “no,” lmao - it’s a tactful dodge. In any case, conversion therapy isn’t the only anti-LGBTQ+ thing Mike Pence has supported. And anti-LGBTQ+ policies and practices (including conversion therapy) both originate from and perpetuate a climate that is hateful and harmful toward LGBTQ+ people. Mike Pence is contributing to that both directly and indirectly, regardless of what specific ways he goes about it.  -- source link

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