This week I talked with Shannon Minter, Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) about his work with “Born Perfect” to end conversion therapy. NCLR launched “Born Perfect” in 2014 to protect LGBTQ children & young people by fighting in courtrooms to ensure their safety & raising awareness about the serious harms caused by these dangerous practices. Their efforts have led to banning conversion therapy in 20 states & over 70 municipalities in the United States. For over 20 years NCLR has been working to protect LGBTQ youth from these horrific practices by working with legislators and LGBTQ leaders in dozens of states to help bring similar protections to the rest of the country. They believe that every LGBTQ child is born perfect & that any young person’s identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender should be honored, celebrated & supported. “Born Perfect” is also led by Mathew Shurka, Co-Founder & Chief Strategist who is a survivor of conversion therapy when at 16 years old his father took him to a licensed therapist who claimed he could make gay people straight. It was the start of years of cruel & damaging “therapy” that left Mathew estranged from his family & his own identity. He then decided to take action posting his personal story on YouTube where it went viral. It was the start of his journey to forgive his father & therapist, reconcile with his family & lead a nationwide battle to end conversion therapy. In the USA over 700,000 people have been through conversion therapy. I talked to Shannon about what he hopes to accomplish with “Born Perfect”, his reaction to the historic U. S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity & his spin on our LGBTQ issues.
LISTEN
For Info: bornperfect.org
For More Info: nclrights.org
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