HONOLULU, Hi.– The Democratic governor of Hawaii has signed a bill banning professional counselors from helping struggling youth resist homosexual feelings.

“[S]exual orientation is not an illness to be cured,” Gov. David Ige claimed during the signing at the state capitol building on Friday. “We accept you and love you just the way you are.”

He asserted that efforts to change homosexual youth “absolutely [have] no place in our beautiful islands.”

Senate Bill 270, which passed the House earlier this month and the Senate in March, specifically prohibits professional counselors from providing “sexual orientation change efforts” to homosexual youth under 18. It contends that the services place homosexuals at risk of harm, “including depression, suicidality, loss of sexual feeling, anxiety, shame, negative self-image, and other negative feelings and behaviors.”

“No person who is licensed to provide professional counseling shall: (1) Engage in or attempt to engage in sexual orientation change efforts on a person under eighteen years of age; or (2) Advertise the offering of sexual orientation change efforts on a person under eighteen years of age,” the bill reads.

“Any person who is licensed to provide professional counseling who engages in or attempts to engage in the offering of sexual orientation change efforts on a person under eighteen years of age shall be subject to disciplinary action by the appropriate professional licensing authority,” it warns.

While counselors are prohibited from helping youth turn away from homosexuality, the legislation notes that the ban does not apply to any counselor who conversely “provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a person” who has homosexual feelings, or “facilitates a person’s coping, social support, and identity exploration and development…”

Mathew Shurka, a strategist with the “Born Perfect” campaign, which seeks to end “conversion therapy” in states nationwide, cheered the signing of the bill, stating, “As a survivor, I know how harmful conversion therapy can be, and I could not be happier that Hawaii has taken this important step to protect the health and safety of its LGBTQ youth from this terrible practice.”

As previously reported, the Scriptures teach that all men are born with the Adamic sin nature, and have inherent inclinations that are contrary to the law of God, being utterly incapable of helping themselves. It is why Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, or they cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” he declared. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

2 Corinthians 5:15-17 also teaches, “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. … Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

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