My friend, Mary Jo Kinzie, has been contacted by Freedom Oklahoma to speak at a news conference Monday, Feb. 23 in anticipation of Representative Sally Kern’s committee, Children, Youth & Family Services, taking up Kern’s “Freedom to Obtain Conversion Therapy Act,” (HB 1598) which seeks to legitimize and provide special state protection to a dangerous and discredited practice of “conversion therapy” that has been denounced by every major medical and mental health association in the country.
She will be speaking as executive director for the Oklahoma chapter for the National Association of Social Workers.
Hopefully members of the committee will recognize this legislation as harmful and not supported by any recognized profession, including American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association.
She would like people to contact members of the committee to express their concerns.
She would also like people to remember that the phones are answered by staff, and not the committee members, so remember, just as at the airport when your flight is delayed or cancelled, it’s not the person behind the counter or who answers the phone who did that, so they should not be the target of any anger.
The contact numbers are
Sally Kern 557-7348;
Pam Peterson 557-7341;
John Paul Jordan 557:7352;
Jason Nelson 557-7335;
Tom Newell 557-7372;
Pat Ownbey 557-7326;
George Young 557-7393;
and Ben Sheerer 557-7364.
The bill number is HB1598.
The press conference is at 10:00 am on the fourth floor in the press room, across from the snack bar.
Good luck Mary Jo.