The Colorado House recently passed a bill prohibiting state-licensed therapists from providing gay conversion therapy to minors. House Bill 1175 will now be considered by the Senate. (Thinkstock)
Re: “Why Colorado shouldn’t ban gay conversion therapy,” March 12 letter to the editor.
Writing against banning gay conversion therapy, letter-writer Dan Gardinier proves why doing so is absolutely necessary: to protect vulnerable youth from attitudes like his. Young people questioning their sexual orientation need a safe place to talk about their feelings. They don’t need to be told that they are doomed to a “profoundly unhappy lifestyle” if they don’t (can’t) change. The most that gay conversion therapy can hope to achieve is a lobotomized state where attraction toward the same sex is merely suppressed to the point that the patient is left feeling little more than numb. That lifestyle would be profoundly unhappy. It is a tragic fact that, because of homophobia, gay youth are at many times greater risk of suicide than their straight peers. Those of us who survived have a message to young people struggling with self-acceptance today: You can find happiness. You can find love. We promise.
Tom Morrissey,Aurora
This letter was published in the March 20 edition.
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