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Originally Posted by dksuddeth
how is stressing abstinence a form of child abuse?
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This is the description of the "form of child abuse" in the May 28, 2006 LA Times article. The fundamentalist religious interference in schools that I find abusive is:
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.....Conservative Christians and Jews have teamed up with men and women who call themselves "ex-gay" to lobby — and even sue — for the right to tell teenagers that they can "heal" themselves of unwanted same-sex attractions.
<B>They argue that schools have an obligation to balance gay-pride themes with the message that gay and lesbian students can go straight through "reparative therapy." In this view, homosexuality is not a fixed or inborn trait but a symptom of emotional distress — a disorder that can be cured.</B>
Alan Chambers, a leading ex-gay activist, recalls how scared and depressed he felt when a high-school counselor advised him to deal with his attraction to other boys by accepting his homosexuality. He had no choice, she told him: He was gay. "It was very damaging," Chambers said. "I didn't want that. I hadn't chosen it."
His senior year, Chambers found his way to Exodus International, a network of groups that support ex-gays. He is now married to a woman, a father of two — and the president of Exodus.
<B>Mental-health professionals overwhelmingly warn against therapy to change sexual orientation, calling it ineffective and potentially harmful to patients' self-esteem.</B> But ex-gays say they have managed to eliminate or reduce their pull to the same sex, though it often takes years of struggle......
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Some teens commit suicide because of self esteem issues. Why would schools cave in to groups who want to target students who have sexual orientations that have been determined medically, not to be "abnormal" or a "disorder". The medical practitioners believe that "reparative therapy" erodes self esteem. There is no medical or emotional disorder that justifies "reparative therapy".
No one suggests sending a message to students who are attracted to the opposite sex that they should consider "reparative therapy" to reorient themselves to a same sex attraction.....so why, if medically, it has been determined that it is not helpful, but actually harmful to perform "reparative therapy", is it offered...in schools....for students to consider, as an "option" to "cure" a disease that medicine says does not exist.
All students, from a standpoint of social responsibility and control of STD's should be given instruction in safe sex practices and even in abstinence, if it is communicated without moralizing and religious based justification. One group who develops an sexual attraction to members of their own sex should not be mistreated by being told...by outsiders who are permitted to come into their schools to speak to them, that they should consider "reparative therapy".
Such a message is condescending and sends students a message that they should consider repairing a "disorder", or implies that they are "abnormal". The mental health experts have determined that the opposite is true...that they are normal, that they have no disease, simply because they are sexually attracted to members of their own sexual gender.
Are you saying that it is appropriate to send a school sanctioned, abstinence message specifically to these students, because of their sexual orientation?