A new law passed by the German Bundestag has made counseling minors (under 18 years of age) with unwanted feelings of same-sex attraction prohibited and punishable, labelling all such attempts “conversion therapy.”
Of course, the law rightly provides that anyone who coerces, threatens, or deceives a young person into seeking “attraction reversal” is also subject to punishment, by up to one year in prison or a fine of 30.000 euros. The problem is that even voluntarily sought counseling by a young person who wants to rid themselves of undesired attractions is lumped together with such abusive behavior, and any advertising for genuine counseling or help is also prohibited.
To Jens Spahn, Germany’s Minister of Health (CDU), since homosexuality is not a disease, “the term therapy is therefore misleading;” Spahn maintains that any treatment would cause severe physical and mental suffering. “Where there is no disease, there is no need for therapy,” says Spahn, adding that the law expresses “that we accept everyone as they are.”
But this ban goes further than outlawing practices that cause physical or mental suffering. It limits young people’s own choices to seek counseling, and also subjects parents to punishment. Any parents who aid a child to seek mitigation of unwanted sexual attractions would be seen as failing in their “duty to bring up a child.” Jens Brandenburg (FDP) explaines, “Anyone who subjects their own children to dangerous polarity reversal attempts violates their duty of care without any ifs and buts.”
This is a far-reaching victory for the gay lobby, violating not only parents’ right to raise their children, but also religious freedom: prayers for deliverance, for example, are counted under the law among the “dangerous” and now illegal “attempts to reverse attraction.” And the new law explicitly states that the “damage” done by “conversion therapy” can “not be justified by freedom of occupation, therapy or religious freedom.”
Lobbyists have worked hard to broaden the term “conversion therapy,” legally considered, to be as wide as possible. Even proper education could be considered punishable – faith-based psychologists’ or psychotherapists’ who might warn about the moral qualities and dangers of homosexual acts, for instance, would be punished.
And while it is obvious that actual parental abuse of children with homosexual tendencies must be condemned, this law targets parental rights even of those parents who care well for their children. It gives parents little recourse to combat the propaganda taught through the schools, at lobbyists’ behest, about sexual inhibition and giving in to any sexual urges, even if parents have deeply held religious beliefs that demand a different sexual ethic.
Treatment options are presently still allowed for adults who, in full possession of their mental powers, desire adjustments of their sexual desires. But the LSVD (Association of Lesbians and Gays in Germany) has already announced that it will work to expand the law. They want “conversion therapy” declared illegal without exception, at any age; and they are supported by the Green Party. Ulle Schauws – spokeswoman for “queer politics” – has already expressed a demand to expand the law.
Meanwhile, the law says nothing of the dangers to children and adolescents brought about by a barrage of sexual propaganda in schools. For years, the subjects of gender, “sexual diversity” and trans-sexuality have been introduced into school lessons in almost all of the federal states, some with extremely graphic and ideological content. What of the effects of this “sex education,” highly politicized, on young minds; not to mention the early sexualization of children? Parents are already denied the right to take a primary role in this matter; and now with this law their recourse to respond to such propaganda is taken away.
Sexuality is presented in schools as merely source of pleasure and energy, and that from an early age. In 2015 in Germany, school material entitled “Real diversity under the rainbow” had to be withdrawn because it was “not suitable for schools,” when for once parent’s protest had succeeded.
It is practically inevitable that, with the passage of this new law, children will become even easier prey for ideologues and sexual radicals. It will be ever harded for parents to promote in children an integrated and natural sexuality and to accompany them through unsafe or uncertain passages in life.
The law is due to enter into force in the middle of the year.