LYNNWOOD – Next week, the Seattle City Council is expected to vote on a bill that would ban Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) therapy for minors who are struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions and gender identity confusion.

This bill, filed by Councilmember M. Lorena González, would strip families of helpful, life-changing counseling they should have the freedom to receive, says Christopher Doyle, a licensed professional counselor and leader of the #TherapyEquality campaign of Equality And Justice For All.

“Proponents of this bill and others like it communicate lies that counselors who affirm clients’ sexual identity do so through electroshock and vomiting-inducing drug therapy,” Doyle said. “Activists are repeating half-truths and un-truths through myths and claims that have been thoroughly discredited for years. Therapy by experienced, educated, and sincere counselors helps minors and families find the root of sexual identity issues and leads them down the path to healing and restoration.”

Doyle, a former homosexual who says that therapy changed his life, is now married to his wife, and they have five children. He has long advocated for therapy freedom and therapy equality, especially as activists fight harder to ban therapies for minors that help them deal with unwanted same-sex attractions and gender identity confusion.

Doyle is coming alongside the Family Policy Institute of Washington to encourage residents to voice their opposition to the ordinance, which would restrict the rights of minors with unwanted same-sex attractions to seek out their treatment of choice and not be labeled as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). The bill would ban children and their parents from receiving counseling from licensed mental health professionals to help address unwanted sexual attractions.

“As bills like this crop up around the country, we encourage those who are opposed to them-and those who can tell their own story about how therapy changed their lives-to speak up and tell lawmakers why residents deserve therapy freedom,” Doyle said.

Joseph Backholm, Executive Director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, released this statement on Thursday afternoon:

“To set restrictions on what a counselor or therapist can do or say in the course of his or her work is both an assault on free speech and an exercise in ignorance. For a City Council to assume that they know better how to counsel a client than the professionals themselves is an insult both to the profession and to the intelligence of the voters who entrust the Council to focus on the issues they’re tasked with.”

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You can read more about the Seattle City Council’s efforts here.

Equality And Justice For All is the only civil rights organization that works to further the general welfare of the ex-gay community by promoting fair and equitable laws and policies protecting their rights. By furthering individual self-determination and liberty for former homosexuals, the organization strives to reduce bigoted representations of the ex-gay sexual orientation status, ensuring that ex-gays and their friends and families can be open, honest, safe and respected in a diverse society.

The Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW) is a pro-family public policy educational organization serving Washington State, focusing on issues of marriage, life, religious freedom and parental rights.