Penna Dexter

A book-banning law has passed the lower chamber of the California legislature. Actually, the bill bans more than books. It bans anything that an individual might purchase that expresses Christian orthodox beliefs about how a person should deal with sexual orientation or gender identity issues. The proposed law treats honest endeavors to alter same sex attractions as criminal violations of the state’s consumer fraud act.

California Assembly Bill 2943, now working its way through the California Senate, adds “sexual orientation change efforts” to a list of banned practices. These include “efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”

A payment for products or activities that communicate the Biblical position about homosexual behavior would trigger this law. It covers:

• counseling services where the counselor is paid,
• church conferences where a fee is charged,
• books and other publications available for purchase, and
• college or other courses where tuition is paid.

The bill could punish religious colleges whose codes of conduct require students’ to behave according to biblical values about sexuality. The law could punish any entity selling materials or offering teaching or counseling for a fee that presents homosexual practice or transgender identity as wrong or sinful.

California loves to pass LGBT-friendly laws that limit the rights of everyone else. But AB 2943 does not protect the rights of LGBT persons. It deprives them of information. Monica Burke wrote in the Daily Signal that the proposed law “only limits the number of perspectives (and assistance) they have access to, while setting a dangerous, Orwellian precedent for government-mandated censorship.”

The LGBT Left is pushing this bill that would ban a book or a conference speech that could help a person struggling with same sex attraction learn how to live a chaste life. It seems this movement that once asked for freedom can’t stand it anymore.