Obama Calls for End to ‘Conversion’ Therapies for Gay and Transgender Youth
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

WASHINGTON — A 17-year-old transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note that religious therapists had tried to convert her back to being a boy.

In response, President Obama is calling for an end to such therapies aimed at “repairing” gay, lesbian and transgender youth. His decision on the issue is the latest example of his continuing embrace of gay rights.

In a statement that was posted on Wednesday evening alongside a WhiteHouse.gov petition begun in honor of Ms. Alcorn, Mr. Obama condemned the practice, sometimes called “conversion” or “reparative” therapy, which is supported by some socially conservative organizations and religious doctors.

The petition has received more than 120,000 signatures in three months.

“We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youth,” the statement, written by Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, says. “As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Jarrett said Mr. Obama had been moved by the story of Ms. Alcorn’s suicide. But she said the problem went far beyond Ms. Alcorn.

“It was tragic, but I will tell you, unfortunately, she has a lot of company,” Ms. Jarrett said. “It’s not the story of one young person. It is the story of countless young people who have been subjected to this.”

Mr. Obama will not explicitly call for a federal law banning therapists from using such therapies on their patients, but he is open to conversations with lawmakers in both parties, White House officials said on Wednesday. Instead, he will throw his support behind the efforts to ban the practice at the state level.

Mr. Obama began his national political career opposed to gay marriage and accepting of limits on gays’ serving in the military. But he now supports same-sex marriage and has sought greater equality of treatment for gay men and lesbians in the government and the private work force. In his first term, he pushed the Pentagon to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that had kept gay service members from serving openly.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama’s top aides also heralded new protections for gay federal workers that went into effect this week. Last summer, Mr. Obama issued executive orders to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation by federal contractors.

Officials also announced the creation of an “all-gender restroom” in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where many of the White House staff members work, to provide an additional option for transgender individuals who are not comfortable using either the men’s or women’s restrooms.

Therapists who advocate the use of the gender identity therapies promote them as a way of helping gay people change their sexual orientation. Those therapists reject claims that sexual orientation or identity is unchangeable and argue that gay or transgender identities should be reversed so that people can embrace their “authentic” heterosexual selves.

The Narth Institute, an organization that advocates the therapies, says on its website that “numerous examples exist of people who have successfully modified their sexual behavior, identity, and arousal or fantasies.”

The fight against such therapies has become more urgent in recent years as gay rights organizations have sought to discredit the practice. California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia have banned therapists from offering the treatment to minors. Similar legislation was introduced in 18 states this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group that tracks legislation on the issue.

Challenges to the laws in New Jersey and California were rejected by federal appeals court judges in 2013 and 2014, officials at the Human Rights Campaign said.

“So-called ‘conversion therapy’ is a range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression,” the group said in a statement.

In Ms. Jarrett’s letter, which was posted on WhiteHouse.gov, the White House says that stopping the gender identity therapies will help make the United States a more welcoming place for gay people.

“Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let’s say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he’s held as long as he can remember,” the statement says. “Soon, perhaps, he will decide it’s time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us — on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.”

David Pickup, a licensed family therapist in California and Texas, said in an interview on Wednesday that the president and gay rights advocates were purposely misconstruing the work that he and others do. He said that minors should never be forced into therapy, but he insisted that being gay was often brought about by serious emotional problems or sexual abuse.

“We believe that change is still possible. People go to therapy because they can change, because it really does work,” Mr. Pickup said. “We help people grow into their authentic selves.”

Mr. Pickup said he and others were actively lobbying against the proposed state bans, and he urged Mr. Obama to “wake up and understand the rights of people who he doesn’t know anything about and need his help and need his compassion.”

歐巴馬：別再強迫治療性向

美國總統歐巴馬八日呼籲，不要再透過心理治療，試圖改變男女同性戀和跨性別未成年人的性傾向。

去年十二月，十七歲的跨性別青少年奧爾康在網路上留下自殺遺書，表示父母強迫她接受宗教治療，要把她變回男孩。她把遺書貼上Tumblr後，就衝進車道讓聯結車撞死。奧爾康死後，有人在白宮網站貼出請願書，呼籲歐巴馬支持立法禁止試圖改變性傾向的「轉化治療」，過去三個月來，請願書已獲得超過十二萬人連署。

回應請願書，歐巴馬發表聲明譴責轉化治療。美心理學會早就反對轉化治療，認為這是建立在同性戀為心理疾病的假設上。但一些保守派組織和宗教團體的醫師支持轉化治療。

白宮資深顧問瓦萊麗．賈芮特執筆的聲明說：「科學證據顯示，轉化治療，特別是施加在年輕人身上，在醫療或倫理上都不適合，會造成實質傷害。」聲明說：「我們不遺餘力保護美國的年輕人，政府支持採取行動，禁止轉化治療用在未成年人身上。」

奧爾康的父母試圖改變她的性向，強迫她接受「轉化治療」，讓她輟學，並與外界隔絕。

她生前在Tumblr部落格就有很多追隨者，她寫她的憂鬱和孤立，感嘆她的人生愈來愈糟，對父母要她當「完美的異性戀基督徒男孩」感到沮喪，她被帶去看「基督教治療師」，他們的偏見很深。

賈芮特表示，歐巴馬對奧爾康的故事感觸很深。她說，這不只是奧爾康一個人的問題。「這是悲劇，但不幸地，她有很多同伴，這是無數年輕人的故事。」

歐巴馬不會公開呼籲聯邦立法全國禁止轉化治療。白宮官員表示，歐巴馬將支持各州立法禁止。加州、新澤西州和華盛頓地區已立法禁止轉化治療，另有十八州已提出禁止的法案。

歐巴馬在從政之初反對同性結婚，並接受軍中對同性戀者服役的限制。但他現在支持同性結婚，並為同性戀者爭取在政府機關和民間職場受到更平等的對待。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/us/politics/obama-to-call-for-end-to-conversion-therapies-for-gay-and-transgender-youth.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/usa/20150409/c09obama/zh-hant/

2015-04-10．聯合報．A19．國際．編譯田思怡