We all are entitled to our opinion, and to voice it, but when a mayor institutionalizes it, it can be foolhardy, and in the worst case, disastrous.
Our mayor in Wellington stated “she recognizes homosexuality is not a mental disorder, something to be ashamed of, but she thinks young people should have the option of choice” and Councilman Michael Drahos calls this a “gray area,” but I would suggest that science has proven there is nothing gray about it, and institutionalizing by permitting “conversion therapy” is not just outlandish, it is cruel, scientifically proven a hoax, and just adds to the already possible trauma of these youth. We do not need or want programs that brainwash, re-engineer and try to alter sexual preferences as a government acquiesced institution.
This harkens back to other methods for similar ignorances and biases, like poll taxes, literacy tests and current gerrymandering to negatively affect minority voting. Saying you are against something and then allowing it is not free speech. It goes to actions deleterious to our children.
We have striven mightily to purge our nation of inequalities, racial, sexual, religious and others, and we have put many nails in Pandora’s box of persecutions, but to have it opened, even a hair, is to let fly free certain despicable attitudes of the last vestiges of bias.
America is better than that, Florida is better than that and so, too, is Wellington. When so many places have not permitted these edifices of ignorance and mental torture, all around us, why would/should Wellington’s mayor object to scientific data and common sense, to allow this re-programming of already traumatized young adults here in our community? We should be at the forefront of equality, of understanding and of embracing our differences, not try to or assist or even give tacit approval, by calling it free speech or “the option to choose” for re-educating our youth and give permitting and/or not denying such institutions. Our Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and ideas, but it doesn’t guarantee institutionalizing our personal beliefs if it negatively affects others.
Conversion therapy has been proven to often lead to guilt, anxiety and depression, and should be avoided, at minimum by not Institutionalizing it with permitting and hence government acquiesce. Let our doctors and psychiatrists address this issue as experts, and if people are desirous of attending school or classes, then it should be incorporated into already existing institutions, if indeed these are sciences. Why am I reminded of exorcisms?
George Unger, Wellington
