Many Americans who identify as Christian voted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Not quite the majority of Americans, but close.
Many of you are disturbed by the threat Islamic extremist terrorists pose to the United States of America and to American people. Among the truly disturbing stories, shared even by the most conservative alt-right media, are cases of extremists throwing gay people to their deaths from rooftops. Perhaps you voted as you did because of these crimes against humanity, because you don't want them to make their way here through Syrian refugee immigrants.
Conversion therapy often involves electrically shocking people to induce seizures while forcing them to look at homosexual pornography. The process is intended to be psychologically damaging, and it also can cause severe brain damage. If this were endorsed by the Islamic State, American people would be up in arms. In fact, this practice has been endorsed by our vice-president elect, Mike Pence.
Our newly elected vice president supports this as a "treatment" to remediate LGBT people's natures. Since the election, I have seen no elected official, Republican, Democrat or otherwise, condemn this practice and promise to work against it should it be introduced into any kind of legislation. If you voted for Trump, then you voted for someone who supports forcing people to watch porn while electrocuting them. I don't know who you are. I really hope that no one reading this is one of those people, because you most certainly are no friend of mine.
I am gay. My new vice president would support strapping me down, forcing me to watch gay pornography, and electrocuting me until I had brain-damaging seizures. I am alarmed not because Hillary Clinton lost the election; I am alarmed because I feel that my personal safety and security are in immediate and present danger and I have no recourse. Via social media, I have asked Republican and Democratic congressional leaders alike to explicitly condemn the practice of conversion therapy and to promise not to use it against American citizens. The response, universally, has been silence. Nothing from Paul Ryan, nothing from even Elizabeth Warren or Nancy Pelosi. Not a word.
Right now, immediately, before the new administration takes office on January 20, the United States Congress must make a pledge to be at least better than ISIL/ISIS, better than Al Qaeda, and commit not to endorse or even consider conversion therapy or any other kind of terrorism or torture.
Mike Pence did not explicitly advocate electroshock therapy or triggering seizures in LGBT people -- he didn't use those words. Rather, as governor of Indiana, he sought to prohibit funding for HIV/AIDS resources to those who need them unless a clause was added that "resources should be directed to those institutions which provide assistance for those seeking to change their sexual behavior." Most people do not seek to change their sexual identities; in many cases, parents of LGBT adolescents force their children into such terror programs. In too many cases, as detailed in this TIME magazine story about 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, teens forced into these programs (who would be vulnerable to Pence's law) kill themselves as the only viable escape from the torture.
What is this country? Who are we? How did this happen?
I understand that some people think that my worries are overreactive. The practice of conversion therapy is something the supposed Islamic terrorists do to people, but is supported and promoted by the very "good Christians" who tell us that people in the Middle East are evil. Most people can't imagine the panic that this induces in me and others like me because you probably are not among those on the list who our incoming regime may be targeting. People who think this practice is abhorrent but voted for the man behind it anyway, I am going to say this and I mean it absolutely: You are the same, the exact same, as the people who sent Anne Frank off to her death. Some part of you must recognize this and live with it for the rest of your life.
Good Christian, wait until you come face to face with your maker.