Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of
Liberty Counsel, has decried “ex-gay” bans, claiming they “force
people into an LGBT lifestyle.”
Such laws prohibit therapies that
attempt to alter the sexual orientation or gender identity of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.
Liberty Counsel has been at the
forefront of challenging these laws and ordinances with little
success.
“Over 80 State and local governments
have passed laws which effectively force people into an LGBT
lifestyle,” Staver wrote on his group's website. “Liberty Counsel
is representing some of the victims of these morally shocking and
deeply unconstitutional laws, and I will personally be arguing one of
our cases before a federal Court of Appeals on February 11.”
“Imagine that someone has come to you
desperately pleading for help that you know you can provide. And
imagine that you had undergone years of schooling and training,
developing the skills and tools necessary to help that person and
that you’re professionally licensed in this very field. You’re
licensed to provide help, but God has called you to this work. But
the law forbids you from helping because government bureaucrats,
blinded by the LGBT agenda, want that person to drown in their
misery.”
“Your partnership is what empowers us
to stand beside our clients against an agenda that is attempting to
dictate what counselors can say to their desperate clients in the
privacy of a counseling room!” he added.
Staver also represented Kim Davis, the
former Kentucky clerk who became a Christian celebrity after she
refused to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.