Irony is long dead in our current age, but if it lived, it would croak over the way Minnesota Senate Republicans are fretting about restricting the free speech of therapists whose juvenile clients "want" to change their same-sex attractions or reverse their "gender confusion." These are the same Minnesota Republicans who see no problem voting for bills that compel medical doctors to lie to patients seeking an abortion. That's where the irony comes in.
The context: The Minnesota House has passed a bill banning so-called conversion therapy for minors. The practice is already banned in 14 states. Senator Scott Dibble, D-Minneapolis, is the sponsor in the upper house, and he thought he had a deal to get it passed in the Senate as well, until it fell apart because of the actions of Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka.
Just after that happened, the Star Tribune ran this story about Gazelka's adult child, Genna, who is now 30 years old and identifies as bi-gender, having come out as a lesbian at age 15.
Read the whole story on the Strib site, but the short version is that as a teenager Genna was sent to Christian psychologist Marcus Bachmann for conversion (yes, the same Marcus Bachmann who's married to the infamous Michele Bachmann [you can find all of my past posts about her here]). If you google his name and the word "conversion," you'll find a bunch of articles, such as this one from the Nation.
In my opinion, Genna's parents should have been investigated for child abuse for subjecting their child to that trauma, but instead Paul Gazelka is now majority leader of our state senate.
All of this makes me think of the words of the poet Khalil Gibran, as filtered through the musical version by Sweet Honey in the Rock:
Your children are not your children
They are the sons and the daughters
Of life's longing for itself
They come through you but they are not from you
And though they are with you
They belong not to you
You can give them your love but not your thoughts
They have their own thoughts
They have their own thoughts
You can house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the place of tomorrow
Which you cannot visit
Not even in your dreams.
You can strive to be like them
But you cannot make them just like you.
Strive to be like them,
But you cannot make them just like you.
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