California Governor Jerry Brown on
Wednesday appealed a court injunction blocking enforcement of the
state's ban on “ex-gay” therapy to minors.
The first-in-the-nation law which
prohibits therapies which promise to alter the sexual orientation of
minors from gay to straight was scheduled to take effect on January
1.
However, a three-judge panel of the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals postponed the law's start until it can
hear a legal challenge, reversing a district court's refusal to put
the law on hold.
State Attorney General Kamala Harris,
working on behalf of Brown and the Medical Board of California, filed
the notice of appeal with the 9th Circuit, The
Los Angeles Times reported. She asked the court to look at
the district court's decision, handed down by Judge Kimberly Mueller.
“Defendants wish to apprise the 9th
Circuit of a related case currently pending before it … denying a
motion for a preliminary injunction that would have enjoined
enforcement of Senate Bill 1172,” Harris wrote. “Both appeals
involve the constitutionality of Senate Bill 1172 and raise the same
and/or closely related legal issues.”
The lawsuit was filed by the National
Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH),
which strongly opposed passage of the law. The organization is
represented by the Christian conservative Liberty Counsel, which has
a long record of opposing LGBT rights.
Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver
said his organization was pursuing legal action because the law
promotes “child endangerment” and “will destroy many lives.”