A Christian gay cure group in the US has accused a California senator of ‘fascism’ after backing a bill which bans the therapy being used on children.

The proposal, SB 1172, is currently making its way through the state’s legislature and would prohibit the use of so-called ‘reparitive therapy’ on minors.

Extremist Christian group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), have now launched a scathing attack on the law.

In a damning letter to California State Senator Ted Lieu, PFOX executive director Regina Griggs said: ‘Your bill will turn California into a nanny state by usurping the civil rights of parents who support their child’s right to receive therapy for unwanted same-sex attractions, especially when that child has been sexually molested.

‘This smacks of fascism and ex-gay bashing.’

Democrat Lieu said he sponsored the bill to protect LGBT youngsters from ‘phony therapies’, saying ‘everyone agrees that this quackery needs to stop.’

He added: ‘Being lesbian or gay or bisexual is not a disease or mental disorder for the same reason that being a heterosexual is not a disease or a mental disorder.

‘And the medical community is unanimous in stating that homosexuality is not a medical condition.’

However, Griggs insists that denying gay youth the therapy would ‘endanger’ them by ‘promoting homosexual behavior to sexually confused youth, and conveniently ignoring the facts about the psychological and physical health risks of sodomy.’

She also cites a 2001 report by the American Psychological Association (APA) as evidence that ‘gay cure’ therapy is harmless and that ‘affirming’ homosexuality is not proven to be safe either.

However, the APA declassified homosexuality as a mental disoder in 1973 and claims therapists are increasingly viewing the practice as ‘inappropriate, unethical and inhumane’.

A major rift emerged in the global ex-gay movement recently with Exodus International president Alan Chambers declaring that homosexuality cannot be cured and admitting that attempts to do so could be harmful.