States across our country are embracing difference and passing laws that allow members of the LGBTQ community to marry the ones we love and be entitled the same legal rights as our heterosexual brothers and sisters.

Texas, on the other hand, is taking two steps back — sending out a message that attempts to shame the LGBTQ community procaliming a resolution to our problem of being gay.

In an attempt to "fix" the LGBTQ community, the Texas GOP has recently adopted into its official party platform, reparative therapy, a practice that attempts to "rehabilitate" homosexuals to help them to live as heterosexuals.

This “therapy” has been banned for use on minors by the states of California and New Jersey. Reparative therapy has also been discouraged by many professional organizations, such as the American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, American Counseling Association, National Association of Social Workers, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Association of School Psychologists.

We have to join together to put a stop to this practice.

According to the American Psychological Association, the risks of reparative therapy are great. And when a therapist aligns with society’s prejudices against homosexuality, it may reinforce any self-hatred the patient already experiences.

This is in addition to the higher rates of isolation and lack of support, emotional distress, suicide attempts, risky sexual behaviors, and substance use that LGBTQ youth already endure — largely spurred from discrimination that comes not only from society, but at times, from within their own families.

The APA also says that promoting “efforts to change sexual orientation by therapy or through religious ministries seems likely to exacerbate the risk of harassment, harm, and fear for these youth.”

By adopting reparative therapy, lawmakers aren’t upholding "family values" or the "sanctity of marriage." What they’re really doing is potentially inflicting significant psychological and emotional damage not only on to LGBTQ youth, but also their families.

We can no longer allow our state to regress and fill peoples' minds with a rhetoric that implies that members of the LGBTQ community can, need, or want to be converted.

Simply stated, being gay or lesbian is not a choice. It’s not a mental disorder. It’s who we are. Period.

The LGBTQ community can no longer be shamed into submission and forced to pretend that we are anyone other than who God created us to be.

We must demand that our government treat us all — whether we’re straight, gay, lesbian, male, female, transgender, black, white, Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Hispanic, Asian, educated, non-educated, rich, or poor — with respect, decency, and equal rights. We must create an environment in which LGBTQ youth are provided accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, supported by their families and schools, and reduce their rejection from society.

By signing this petition, you are standing up for human rights and equality for all, telling our Texas leaders that reparative therapy is unacceptable and harmful.

Blessings & Peace,

Eric