Double Your Gift for Justice and Equality

by Born Perfect Staff

Last year, when we launched #BornPerfect: NCLR’s Campaign to End Conversion Therapy, it was after more than two decades of advocating for an end to this heinous practice. Survivors of conversion therapy and their families have been shoulder to shoulder with us every step of the way. A year and a half ago, they called on us to take the fight to the next level.

So we set a bold goal: end conversion therapy by 2019.

Your support is critical to ensure that we succeed in eliminating this deadly practice. And today we are proud to announce that every gift we receive from now until December 31st will be matched dollar for dollar to support our life-changing work, including #BornPerfect.

Since the launch of #BornPerfect we have achieved historic milestones, including:

  • Passing groundbreaking new laws protecting minors from being subjected to conversion therapy by licensed mental health professionals and successfully defending those laws before two federal circuit courts.
  • Partnering with the Obama Administration to secure the first statements in history from a sitting President and Surgeon General condemning this ineffective and harmful practice, as well as the first Department of Health and Human Services report detailing the harm it causes to vulnerable youth.
  • Persuading the United Nations Committee Against Torture and High Commissioner for Human Rights to speak out for an end to this abuse on a global scale.

Even with these incredible gains, there is still much work to do to end this dangerous and discredited practice forever. Please make your tax-deductible gift today—which will be matched—so together we can continue to build on this momentum.

We have come so far since the days when these kids had nobody to stand up for their rights. But we won’t stop until every one of them has a place to call home for the holidays, a community where they feel safe, and a family who never lets them forget they were #BornPerfect.

Please double your gift today for justice and equality. We cannot let them down.

In solidarity,
Sam Ames, Esq.
#BornPerfect Campaign Coordinator & Staff Attorney

PS: You can maximize your donation by making a gift of appreciated stock today.

Survivor Tells U.N. Committee Against Torture: “A Therapist Told Me I Was Sick”

by Born Perfect Staff

I never imagined I would be in Geneva, Switzerland, but last week there I was. I was no tourist, I was there to testify before the U.N. Committee Against Torture. To say this was surreal would be a vast understatement.

In the two minutes that I was given to address the U.N.’s Committee Against Torture, I fought back tears as I described how a psychotherapist, at the request of my parents, tried to change my sexual orientation through conversion therapy when I was 10 years old.

You can help NCLR’s #BornPerfect protect LGBT kids with your donation. Will you support us in our fight to end this dangerous and discredited practice?

I told the Committee how the therapist said I was sick, that God hated me, and that the government was exterminating all LGBT people. My voice shook as I detailed the physical abuse I endured in an effort to make me straight, including being restrained and physically hurt.

But last week, as part of NCLR’s #BornPerfect campaign delegation, I was finally vindicated. Our testimony resulted in the Committee addressing the issue of conversion therapy with the U.S. State Department for the first time in history. We brought international awareness to conversion therapy, a dangerous and discredited practice that is still wreaking havoc in the lives of youth across the country.

As co-chair of the #BornPerfect Advisory Committee, I hope that my testimony will save other children across the U.S. and around the world. No one should ever be told that they need to change who they are. WE ARE ALL BORN PERFECT.

Will you help us in our fight to end this practice in the next five years by donating today?

Onward,

Samuel Brinton
#BornPerfect Advisory Committee Co-Chair

Our Goal—End Conversion Therapy in Five Years

by Born Perfect Staff

By Kate Kendell, Esq.

No child should ever be hurt because of who they are. That’s why we started the #BornPerfect campaign to end conversion therapy across the country over the next five years.

We need your financial support to make it happen.

All attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through conversion therapy damage LGBT youth, causing depression, substance abuse, and even suicide. Conversion therapy has been condemned by every major medical and mental health organization in the country. But unethical therapists still continue to subject LGBT youth to this abusive practice.

Your donation of $10, $25, or $50 will support the work in progress right now to end conversion therapy. Will you join us in this fight? We are:

  • Testifying to urge the United Nations Committee Against Torture to take steps to end conversion therapy in the U.S.
  • Working with legislators and leaders in more than a dozen states to draft and pass laws to protect LGBT youth, similar to California and New Jersey where we helped draft, pass, and defend laws banning conversion therapy.
  • Fighting in courtrooms to defend conversion therapy bans.
  • Representing LGBT survivors abused by religious authorities, including recently a young man in Mississippi who suffered horrific abuse in a religious school.

We believe that every LGBT child is born perfect and that any young person’s identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender should be honored, celebrated, and supported. We are committed to a future where youth are free from this abusive practice, but we cannot realize that vision without you.

Will you donate today?

Onward,

Kate Kendell, Esq.
NCLR Executive Director