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February 27, 2019 10:23 AM UTC

Colorado Family Action Leader Says Conversion Therapy Helps Children “Sexually Abused…by a Same-Sex Person”

  • 28 Comments
  • by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Colorado Family Action director Debbie Chaves used a dangerous and false stereotype of LGBT people to oppose a proposed bill banning conversion therapy for minors.

Speaking on a religious right video podcast, Chaves warned about the dangers the bill would create for children who have been “sexually abused by a same sex person.”

She also warned of “LGBTQ agenda driving policy” at the state capitol, saying “they’re going after the hearts and minds of our children.”

Speaking on a religious right video podcast, Chaves warned about the dangers the bill would create for children who have been “sexually abused by a same sex person.” She also warned of “LGBTQ agenda driving policy” at the state capitol, saying “they’re going after the hearts and minds of our children.”

The host asked Chaves to explain a proposed bill that would ban “conversion therapy” for minors, Chaves answered,

“It would ban any licensed counselor from talking to a child about a biblical world view of sexuality, if [that child] don’t want to have a homosexual or same-sex attraction. So they would ban a licensed counselor from counseling a child towards heterosexuality.” “What that means in a nutshell is, when we have a child who has been sexually abused or exploited in some way by a same-sex person, oftentimes they have anger or rage issues and they go to counseling. When it would come out that they want counseling to not have an attraction and to align their behavior with their sincerely-held beliefs, they [the counselors] would be stopped from counseling a child towards that belief and behavior. It puts children in danger. These kids that have already been exploited. Do we want a vulnerable child to be banned from getting the help that they need?”

 

Chaves’ group, Colorado Family Action, is the state’s “family policy council,” or local partner of Colorado’s own Focus on the Family and two out-of-state anti-LGBT hate groups: Alliance Defending Freedom and Family Research Council. The Southern Poverty Law Center designates ADF and FRC as hate groups precisely because of the sort of rhetoric that Debbie Chaves uses here to oppose a ban on conversion therapy for minors.

Responding to Chaves’ statement, Daniel Ramos, executive director of One Colorado explained his organization’s support of the minor conversion therapy ban:

“No young person should ever be shamed by a state-licensed mental health professional into thinking who they are is wrong. Unfortunately, as we heard when this bill was in committee, too many young LGBTQ Coloradans have sought help from licensed professionals so they can find their truth, only to be subjected to dangerous and discredited practices that use rejection, shame, and psychological abuse to force them to change who they are. More and more states are standing with LGBTQ youth by banning the harmful, discredited practice of conversion therapy on minors, and it is time for Colorado to do the same.”

As noted in a previous Colorado Times Recorder story “Focus on the Fearmongers,” it is the deliberate promotion of falsehoods about LGBT people- that they’re pedophiles or a danger to children in any way- that earns SPLC’s hate group designation.

Later in the podcast, Chaves linked the conversion therapy ban with two other bills currently under debate at the Capitol: the comprehensive sex education bill and a youth mental health & suicide prevention bill. You can watch the full segment here. Chaves says “the LGBTQ agenda is driving” all three policies.

Asked to confirm that statement, Chaves stated simply “there is certainly is an agenda driving policy, yes.”

Colorado Family Action is hosting a Prayer Meeting tomorrow at noon on the state Capitol sidewalk. Chaves says the event is “citizens gathering on the sidewalk to pray for a right decision to be made on HB1032 [the comprehensive sex education bill opposed by CFA], because we know it’s not good for Colorado schools.”

CFA is using the phrase “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” to promote the event. Asked if that was related her assertion that there is an LGBTQ agenda “going after the hearts and minds of our children,” Chaves answered

“I think it’s pretty clear that there is a broad agenda in this policy [the comp sex ed bill]. That agenda is specifically to prohibit something and require something without looking at the entire compass of how we would actually teach sex ed and what’s in the best interest of children. There is specific verbiage in there that specifically requires a certain type of teaching and prohibits something else and that’s what we’re concerned about and we know it’s not in the best interest of schools or local control or Colorado’s children.” Debbie Chaves, Colorado Family Action

While Chaves herself spoke in generalities such as “requires a certain type of teaching and prohibits something else,” CFA’s email blast for the event makes very precise claims:

“This bill forces children as young as nine-years-old to learn graphic details about LGBT “sexual experiences.” Colorado Family Action email, 2/26/19

This claim is not supported by the text of bill, which includes an opt-out provision for parents and requires curriculum to be “age-appropriate.”

The Comprehensive Sex Education bill is scheduled to be heard in Senate State Affairs this Thursday, Feb. 28 at 1:30pm. The Conversion Therapy for a Minor ban passed the House last week and is scheduled to be heard in Senate State Affairs on Mar. 18. The Youth Mental Health & Suicide Prevention bill has its first hearing Friday, Mar. 1 in the House Public Health & Human Services committee.

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28 thoughts on “Colorado Family Action Leader Says Conversion Therapy Helps Children “Sexually Abused…by a Same-Sex Person””

      1. S'OK. I can only say it's an epidemic. Great pic BTW.

         

        Yay! It worked!

        For videos, at least…

        Why doesn’t this site let me upload images directly from my computer? Why does it force me to save them to Flickr or Photobucket and give them a URL first, and then at best only 50% of the time, if the site is feeling cheerful and it’s the right phase of the moon?

        1. It seems to depend on your search engine that you use to access the images.  Images accessed via Google, for instance, appear to have some sort of copy protection that will not allow them to be placed into the image generator in WordPress.

          For example, this is what I get:

             

          from: 

          https://goo.gl/images/EkiXXG  in the WordPress image generator.

          If you can’t get an “original image” URL (as in “view original image”) from the web, then you can’t get that image or GIF to post here.  I have been using Bing to locate the original images to post here.

          And, I could be wrong about all of this, but that’s my theory at this point . . . 

          1. With few exceptions, I'm able to select an image from Google, then with a right-click select 'copy image', and then paste directly to the CPols comment box like this:

            1. Yeah.  I used to be able to do that awhile back.  I’m on here via an i-phone almost exclusively, and that no longer works now as an option.  The same way that I no longer am able to get embed codes from Youtube when I’m using my i-phone.  Something’s changed.  I just figured it was some kind of Google/Android OS vs. Apple/IOS we’re-not-gonna-play-nice-together-anymore rivalry kind of thing?

              I dunno’.  “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you’re at” . . . 

        1. Or a self-righteous Pharisee seeing an opportunity to strut her self-righteousness in front of the cameras.  I think it was Jesus who warned against these blasphemers and their doctrine of hatred.  His advice was to avoid these people (shun) and try not to be like them.  Ms. Chaves is Example A of what he was talking about.

  4. These morons have no idea what kind of harm they are inflicting upon their children. This woman and her ilk really need to pull their heads out of their asses, and get some blood flowing to their brains.

      2. She's talking about conversion therapy, you ignorant shill. Conversion therapy which is something all ethical mental health professional have denounced as doing more harm than good.

        Children who are molested by other people be they straight (who are most often the perpetrators), gay, bisexual, etc., deserve appropriate counsel and treatment from qualified mental health professionals.

        1. They turn into Oranges? Republicans? . . . 

          . . . And, of course, the sexual abuse victims of Southern Baptist clergy turn into FOF ministers?

          It sounds to me like Fluffy (and Debbie Chaves) has watched far too many afternoon vampire sagas in grammy’ basement.

          . . . I guess maybe some GOPer nutball sexually abused a half-brained ferret, and that’s how we got Fluffy???

      5. PodestaEmails —

         * molested children are attacked by pedophiles. There is a great deal of literature suggesting most attackers are not heterosexual or homosexual in a usual sense — instead there is a focus on children, and often (but not always) a specific gender of child.

        * there are many, MANY negative consequences on the lives of victims. One is a slightly increased risk of perpetuating abuse, with a focus on a new generation of children. I am not deeply read on this topic — but the skimming I've done showed the idea that abuse sets a homosexual or heterosexual identity or practice is not one of the consequences.

        * child psychologists and counselors working with victims help deal with the trauma.  I'm not certain professionals think their job (or their ability) allows them to "convince" children of a preferred sexuality, whether heterosexual or homosexual.

      6. I tried to parse the logic for your questions. Do I think that all children molested by gay people should turn out gay, too? Where is the choice in that.

        Um, no. Nor do I think all children molested by straight people should turn out straight. I would much rather no children were molested by anyone ever. That's where the "choice" is in that.

        Sexuality has very little to do with exploitation of children. (Molesters are comprised of 79% straight married men, compared to only 21% gay men (and a very few women). And this is why:

        Science and case management experience has shown us that most child molesters are heterosexual. Abuse is about power and control and is not anchored by sexual orientation.

         

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