The following comes from an Oct. 1 story on LifeSiteNews.com.

A bill that was described as a deliberate “attack on parental rights” by its sponsor has been signed into law in California. On Sunday, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill banning sexual orientation change therapy for minors. It is set to go into effect on January 1, 2013.

In response, the pro-family law firm Liberty Counsel has said it is filing a lawsuit on behalf of counselors, parents and their minor children, and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality against the legislation.

In signing the bill, Gov. Brown said that sexual orientation change therapy “will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery.” This summer in response to critics who said the bill was an attack on parents rights, the bill’s sponsor State Senator Ted Lieu said: “The attack on parental rights is exactly the whole point of the bill, because we don’t want to let parents harm their children….”

Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, agrees. “The California governor and legislature are putting their own preconceived notions and political ideology ahead of children and their rights to get access to counseling that meets their needs,” he said this week.

The law defines “sexual orientation change efforts” as any practice that is designed to reduce or eliminate same-sex attraction. Critics such as Staver say such broad language will prohibit any counseling that does not affirm and encourage experimentation with or acceptance of same-sex attractions, regardless of whether those feelings and attractions are unwanted by the counselee….

While the bill makes it an ethical violation for any counselor or therapist to engage in it, opponents have argued that if the counselor does not provide the client with such counseling, or at least a referral, upon request, the counselor will also violate their licensing ethical code.

For complete story, click here.