The Associated Press and NBC are reporting this morning that the Texas Republican Party — which is holding its convention this weekend in Fort Worth, with 10,000 delegates in attendance — has introduced a platform to endorse reparative therapy for gays. The full delegation is expected to vote on the issue Saturday.
The platform would “recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle.” The language is peculiar, since reparative therapy has been rejected by psychology professionals and even dismissed by former therapists. The process seeks to “train” gay people to “become” straight. It tacitly embraces the concept that sexual orientation is a “choice.”
This follows recent word this week that the Texas GOP had abandoned anti-gay rhetoric in the party platform, as well as a controversy over the role of gay Republicans at the convention.
Read more about the resolution here.
