Powerful Call To Action Seeks To Abolish Conversion Therapy
New York, NY, October 10, 2018 — You might have thought that "conversion” therapy practices on children in America would have been outlawed years ago. You'd be wrong. This state-sanctioned practice to try to change a child's sexual orientation or gender identity is alive and well—and living in the United States.
Vellah Jones' new book, Dear Congress: Voices of American Children Currently Being Abused by Conversion Therapy, bravely pulls back the curtain on conversion therapy through the voices of 12 American children currently undergoing what amounts to little more than legalized torture. Jones, who sees a correlation between conversion therapy and child abuse, provides examples of the occurrence of neglect, as well as physical, psychological, sexual and emotional abuse during conversion therapy sessions by mental health professionals.
"These 12 high school children represent tens of thousands of children across the country,” Jones said. "This is a practice that's been proven to have no success in changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and is known to impair a child's development and result in increased juvenile homelessness, addiction and suicide.
As Jones' first public effort to shine a light on the horrors of conversion therapy and to effect positive legislative change, Dear Congress is a call to action for everyone to press for an end to conversion therapy practices on juveniles.
For more information, please go to: www.dearcongress.love.
Dear Congress: Voices of American Children Currently Being Abused by Conversion Therapy
Release date: August 23, 2018
Published in the USA by Legacy Projects
ISBN–13: 978-1725081345
ISBN–10: 1725081342
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Reviews of Dear Congress:
Bruce Kluger, columnist, USA Today: "Conversion therapy is the waterboarding of impressionable young minds, a sanctioned modern-day torture so ignorant of science and abuse in practice that in 2018 it continues to waste the lives of millions around the world, nearly 700,000 in America alone. With their landmark book, Vellah Jones and her 'Children's Committee' have done more than simply expose the politics and perversion ... (they) also reveal, bit by painful bit, the human toll suffered by its innocent victims, while simultaneously providing them a potent forum—and steely solidarity—to fight back and abolish this psychological brutality.”
Kathryn Smerling, PhD, licensed family therapist, New York City: "I wish this book did not exist, that state and federal law prohibited the horrible psychological, physical and emotional abuse of conversion therapy. Hopefully, this book will help to end these practices, and for all.”
