Supreme Court Keeps Ban On 'Gay Conversion Therapy' In California

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider arguments against California's ban on a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality in children, according to The Associated Press.

The court's decision not to take up the case follows a ruling by an appeals court last year stating the prohibition on so-called "gay conversion therapy" for minors is not a violation of the constitutional rights of counselors or parents, the AP reported.

"The Court's refusal to accept the appeal of extreme ideological therapists who practice the quackery of gay conversion therapy is a victory for child welfare, science and basic humane principles," said state senator Ted Lieu, who authored the ban, according to the AP.

"Those who oppose letting children be what they were born to be can no longer claim that the law infringes the free speech rights of therapists who wish to engage in these dangerous and long-discredited practices," Lieu said, the AP reported.

Last year's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District resolved two lawsuits seeking to stop implementation of Lieu's measure, which prohibits therapists from performing sexual-orientation change counseling with children and teens under age 18, according to the AP.

"I am deeply saddened for the families we represent and for the thousands of children that our professional clients counsel, many of whom developed these unwanted attractions because of abuse of a pedophile," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Christian-based organization that filed the lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban, the AP reported.

"The minors we represent do not want to act on same-sex attractions, nor do they want to engage in such behavior. They are greatly benefiting from this counseling," Staver said, according to the AP.

Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban into law in 2012, making the nation's most populous state the first to prohibit the treatment, also known as reparative therapy or change therapy, among youths, the AP reported.

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