Court Rejects Challenge To Law Banning Gay Therapy

Chaim Levin, left, and Michael Ferguson, right, with his partner Seth Anderson, listen to a a news conference, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. Levin, of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. NY, and Ferg... Chaim Levin, left, and Michael Ferguson, right, with his partner Seth Anderson, listen to a a news conference, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. Levin, of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. NY, and Ferguson, of Salt Lake City, are two of four gay men accusing a New Jersey organization of selling "conversion therapy" services promising to make them straight. Instead, they told the news conference that they were subjected to humiliations, including having to strip naked, or taking a baseball bat to effigies of their mothers. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) MORE LESS
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to California’s law that bars mental counseling aimed at turning gay minors straight.

The justices on Monday let stand an appeals court ruling that said the state’s ban on so-called conversiontherapy for minors doesn’t violate the free speech rights of licensed counselors and patients seeking treatment.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that California lawmakers properly showed that efforts to change sexual orientation were outside the scientific mainstream and have been rejected for good reason.

Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal aid group, had challenged the law along with other supporters of the therapy. They argue that lawmakers have no scientific proof the therapy does harm.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. This kind of headline requires me to stop and read it, then figure out the meaning. Too many hoops to jump through when the headline could read “Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Gay Therapy Law.” Same number of words, clearer meaning.

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