Politics & Government

Rick Perry Doubles Down on Stupid Talking About Conversion Therapy

We should probably be used to it by now. Governor Rick Perry went on CNBC earlier this week and said something that, were it to have come from anyone else, would've been stunning for its intellectual dishonesty. In the midst of an interview, which you can see in full below,...
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We should probably be used to it by now. Governor Rick Perry went on CNBC earlier this week and said something that, were it to have come from anyone else, would’ve been stunning for its intellectual dishonesty.

In the midst of an interview, which you can see in full below, Perry told Squawk Box‘s Joe Kernan that he doesn’t know if non-heterosexuals can change their sexual orientation. Then, he commented on conversion therapy, an endorsement of which was added to the Texas GOP’s 2014 platform at the party’s recent convention in Fort Worth.

“You know, I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll leave that to the psychologists and the doctors.”

That statement is totally at odds with everything his party believes, at least in Texas, and tough to reconcile with of his statements comparing homosexuality to alcoholism last week.

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Which, in a way, would be a sign of progress for Perry, assuming he knows what the medical establishment thinks of conversion therapy. On the off chance he doesn’t, we’ve put together a short list the governor can print out, clip and save, naming organizations that have denounced conversion therapy as useless or worse:

The American Psychological Association The National Association of Social Workers The American Counseling Association The Pan American Health Organization The American Medical Association The American Psychological Association The American Association of Sexuality Educators Counselors and Therapists

Unfair Park is holding its breath for Perry’s announcement of a statewide conversion therapy ban.

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