Family Research Council head Tony Perkins is upset about new state efforts to bar the use of “ex-gay” therapy on minors, which he says are no different from laws banning someone from helping a person out of a burning building.

“If people want to engage in behavior that is destructive, personally, I want to warn them about it, I don’t want to be silenced from the ability of saying ,‘Hey, your house is on fire, you might want to come out,’” Perkins said. “Of course you’re saying that’s absurd, who would ever pass a law saying you can’t say ‘your house is on fire’?”

“Well, more and more states are actually moving to make it illegal for children under eighteen to receive counseling to come out of homosexuality.”

Perkins lamented that such laws “silence” parents who want to “help” their child “come out of a lifestyle we know is destructive and harmful.”