SACRAMENTO, California, July 31, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – If left-wing lawmakers have their way, it will soon be the official position of the state of California that Americans who hold to biblical understandings of sex and gender will be considered responsible for homosexual and transgender suicides.
ACR-99 is a resolution declaring that “being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender” are “part of natural variations that occur in sexual orientation and gender identity” and condemning counseling services that help people resolve unwanted gender confusion or same-sex attraction. It passed the California Assembly last month, and is now pending before the state Senate.
“The stigma associated with being LGBTQ often created by groups in society, including therapists and religious groups, has caused disproportionately high rates of suicide, attempted suicide, depression, rejection, and isolation amongst LGBTQ and questioning individuals,” it claims. It calls on “the people of California – especially its counselors, pastors, religious workers, educators, and legislators” to eschew and work against anti-LGBTQ “stigma.”
“There is no reputable, serious research showing people commit suicide because a particular religion refuses to embrace homosexuality,” Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton responded. “None. It is largely created as an ideological assumption and political cudgel. But to even question the assertion will cast you immediately as a heartless stone. Remember, any science that does not permit it to be questioned has become fundamentalist dogmatism.”
Biological sex is rooted in an individual’s chromosomes and reflected by hundreds of genetic characteristics. Studies indicate that more than 80 percent of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, unless their confusion is reinforced by adults. Even reinforcing one’s chosen “gender identity” to the point of full sex-reassignment surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm.
The University of Cambridge’s Stonewall report found that 96 percent of trans students in Scotland attempted self-harm through actions such as cutting themselves, and 40 percent attempted suicide. Forty percent in the United States have attempted suicide, as well, according to a 2016 survey from the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). According to a 2011 study from Sweden, trans people remain 19 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population.
Further research out of LGBT-friendly Sweden has found that homosexual and transgender residents remain more likely to attempt or commit suicide, despite having achieved the type of culture advocated by ACR-99.
The California resolution “ought also to call for religious leaders — and secular leaders — to counsel on LGBT matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the dangers inherent in such practices,” suggested author Denise Shick, founder of the Christian ministry Help 4 Families. “Love and compassion must be based on knowledge, and knowledge must be based on facts, not on suppositions.”