I feel like I’m beating a dead horse on this, but as I keep writing about, I’m having a hard time finding anyone associated with Michael Farris who is willing to actually call anything child abuse.
Well, good news boys and girls. Remember that I mentioned the other day about how Michael Farris was at the launch of Trail Life, the scouting alternative that exists because they don’t like that the Boy Scouts don’t kick out gay kids? Well, the head of Trail Life, John Stemberger, is the first person I’ve come across who associates with Farris and is willing to call something abuse.
As I’m sure you were wondering, yes, there is a catch. In Stemberger’s world, affirming a gay child is abuse.
Via Right Wing Watch, from Janet Mefferd’s radio show:
Mefferd: Absolutely. Now a lot has been reported about how you will handle the issue of sexuality in the Trail Life USA organization. How did it come about that you put together the parameters that you did and how do you reassure parents that the issues that may come up in the Boy Scouts are not going to be the same in Trail Life USA?
Stemberger: Well first of all, we’re not going to allow open and avowed homosexuality. It’s really important that we distinguish between a mere same-sex attraction, which by the way 20-25 percent of young boys as they are growing up will experience some sort of gender ambiguity or confusion, or just needing to wonder who they are, needing affirmation, that’s not uncommon at all. But what’s horrible is to have the society and schools and even parents, which is tantamount to abuse in my judgment, saying ‘oh he is special, he must be gay, he must be gender confused, let’s let him explore.’ That is just absolutely nonsense and it’s an abuse to the child.
(emphasis added)
I don’t know whether Michael Farris happens to agree with that assertion on the part of Stemberger, though he certainly is enthusiastic about the existence of Trail Life. You know what Farris does endorse though? Subjecting minors to reparative therapy.
He brings it up in response to post a former homeschooler left on his Facebook wall asking him to speak out against the effort in Russia to take children away from gay parents.
The California law that Farris is asking Rachel to publicly condemn is one that prohibits mental health professionals from using reparative therapy practices to attempt to change the sexual orientation of minors. It is a law that was passed because of the well-documented evidence that such “therapy” is harmful, if not psychologically abusive.
People have committed suicide as a result of reparative therapy they were subjected to as children. You can read one such story here. It’s incredibly harmful and it destroys people’s lives.
And yet Michael Farris sees laws preventing parents from subjecting their children to the abuse of such therapy to be an attack on parental rights.
I feel like I’m living in opposite world.
Affirming gay children–something that helps save kids’ lives–is bad, subjecting them to harmful and abusive “therapy” practices is good. Of all the things that Farris refuses to call abuse and won’t condemn, the one thing that an organization that Farris backs will call abuse is accepting gay kids for who they are.
Keep your children in cages? Farris’ organization, HSLDA, will call you a hero. Love and affirm your gay kid? Farris’ buddy will call you an abuser.
And meanwhile, the ones who suffer are the innocent kids.