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Tomorrow, the Public Assembly Committee in California will begin reviewing an antiquated 1950's law that requires doctors to look into the "causes and cures for homosexuality."
The law came into being after a repeat sex offender raped and murdered a California woman. The law, which is still in effect, requires doctors to seek information that would add to the scientific data on sexual psychopaths. At the time the law came into effect homosexuality was still on the list of psychological disorders which brought gay and lesbian persons into the picture because they were considered to have a mental disorder.
Now the California law is considered outdated and sponsors have lobbied for it's removal. This morning on the news, Richard Cohen, a psychiatrist and leader in the "Gay cure" movement, is making the rounds saying the law has a valid place in helping cure homosexuals.
Cohen has been in trouble with various medical associations in the past for his absurd notions of curing gay men and women. His own claims that being molested as a child turned him gay and caused him years of anguish until he found a cure are just as absurd. There will be other comments posted online, this is all I could find today from Slate Magazine after watching Cohen's comments on CNN News:
"Tomorrow, California’s Public Assembly Committee will vote on whether to abolish a law that requires doctors look into “the causes and cures of homosexuality.” The law, Welfare and Institutions Code Section 8050, was established in April of 1950 following a repeat sex offender’s rape and murder of a California woman.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the antiquated law, which “defined the role of science in solving the ‘sexual psychopath’ problem,” affected gay men and women because “in 1950, homosexuality remained, officially, a mental disorder.”
As Slate points out, “There was no connection between the crime and homosexuality at all. Even so, before the dust had settled, well-meaning California legislators passed a law that not only required health officials to seek ‘the causes and cures of homosexuality’ but likened people who are gay to child molesters.”
Bonnie Lowenthal, the Assemblywoman (and author of the Times piece) who’s spearheading the repeal, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram, “Our codes are constantly updated, and the fact this language has survived this long is pretty amazing. We need to blot it out and make it clear we're moving forward as a society, not backward.”
I'm sure Brody will find us more. I'd settle for Richard Cohen's obituary.
[Updated on: Tue, 06 April 2010 15:11]
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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