So let me get this straight. The Republicans want the state to fund counseling for homosexuals to try and make them heterosexual. I thought conservatives were supposed to be for less spending. At least the Democrats are good intentioned. I mean, in Texas they're basically running on increasing spending on education. What's more important, counseling to try and turn gays straight, or education to increase the economic value of Texas as a whole? This is why the Republicans are a joke. (Same for the Democrats, but to a lesser degree.)
Big government Republicans are the same as big government Democrats, they just have different pet projects. The lack of a real choice in elections is disgusting.
I agree with you here - there doesn't seem to be any kind of policy proposal. Telling me that our state GOP is in favor of this is like telling me that water is wet. Duh. Now, if they try to actually shuffle state money around and pay for this kind of practice (it is not a treatment if there's nothing to be treated outside of their own delusion), we'll have a problem on our hands. What baffles me the most is that they are so committed to going down in flames on this. Can social conservatives really not see that they've lost the legal, moral and logical battle on this on? Move on.
If that's really all there is, I don't really care. I'm already not a republican. If they just want to let homosexuals that want therapy know they've got their backs, I don't have a problem. Maybe it's ineffective and/or damaging (and the issue is so politically loaded, I probably won't really know without running my own study), but apparently we have the right to do dumb stuff to ourselves. Well, I don't see that anywhere in here. They just seem to support it in principle, and for purposes of appealing to their base. I would be very surprised if legislation came out of this platform where state money went to therapists. Texas doesn't want to pay for anyone's healthcare, much less mental health.
I think we only have ourselves to blame for that. We tend to blindly support our party of choice regardless of which side of the argument they stand. The politicians know this very well and they use it to win elections.
Yeah, it's ridiculous how people seem to support politicians based on the letter associated with their name, D or R. No real conservative could ever support "Reparative Therapy for gays" because a real conservative would realize that it's not the government's place and that who someone likes to screw in the bedroom is none of their business. Have someone suggest "Reparative Therapy for Christians" and they'd go nuts about it, but they can't seem to see that this is EXACTLY the same thing.
I would like a little more efficiency in my government, personally. This is a complete and total waste of time and effort.
We are fragile animals. We look in that mirror and rarely do we see what other see we too fat, too skinny, too dark, too light, smh We have an economic system that attacks every self consious thought and pounce on it to sell product homosexuality is becoming no different what to see more 'psychological' drugs and programs to make themselves relevent look at the uptick in Syndromes and disorders for just about everything Republican see it a two-fer Make BIG PHARMA happy and their base Rocket River I am sorry about your cousin. No one should have to go through that
Because if you don't at least pretend to be "normal", it's threatening to the presumed moral authority of the simple-minded. I mean...you're practically screaming it in their faces that it's ok to live out your life the way nature intended it.
Maybe Texas can vote for psychological treatment to turn Republicans back into compassionate human beings?
Right now, any wasted effort is in the party in hammering out their platform. This decision of the GOP's doesn't impact government time and effort unless politicians elected with this platform try to make some kind of policy out of it.
If the Texas GOP really cared about Texas more than they did their anachronistic moral taboos, they would be subsidizing the mortgages of educated gay couples to move to Texas to raise the property values and lower the crime rate.
If it's voluntary I have no problem with it. Just curtail any validation of it as legitimate reimbursable therapy, keep anyone under 18 from attending it (as it would be under obvious parental duress). For some reason I can also imagine some judges using it to sidestep Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and punish other vice offenders who are discovered to be gay or engaging in same-sex romantic actitivites, so maybe put some safeguards there as well.
There's nothing in the platform about funding anything or government programs or anything of the like. Did anyone bother to read the original article? A few other states have banned the practice. The Texas GOP is opposed to banning it. The end.
pssh lame. here is what i'd do to turn the homesexual straight.... think Clockwork orange therapy but with footage of linda barrett coming out of the swimming pool, salmahayek snake scene, unfaithful cinema scene, Original Sin Angelina scene, and chandler parsons sweating.
Yes there is nothing about funding in the platform that said the platform is a statement of values and advocacy and what this plank would do is advocate for a therapy that has been shown to not work and in many cases be harmful. This plank along with the maintaining the plank about "homosexuality tearing the fabric of society." is also divisive and perpetuates homophobia. While the Texas GOP has a right to adopt anything they want as part of their platform this is disturbing that they would choose to enshrine these views in 2014.
Another nail in the coffin for Republicans. A few more years and the party will be extinct as well as all of the fossils who support it.
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