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Chris Christie Bans Gay Conversian Therapy, Continues To Confuse Conservatives

Brianna Sacks |
August 19, 2013 | 11:03 a.m. PDT

(Gov. Chris Christie/Wikimedia)
(Gov. Chris Christie/Wikimedia)
Candid and tough-talking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will continues to distance himself from Tea Party Republicans, GOP ideologies and Christian conservatives by announcing that he will sign a bill that will ban the practice of trying to convert gay children to become straight.

Christie said months ago that he wasn’t sure whether the government should legislate the therapy, CNN reported.

“I still have those concerns,” he said Monday. “Government should tread carefully into this area, and I do so here reluctantly. I have scrutinized this piece of legislation with that concern in mind.”

Although Christie is both pro-life and anti-gay marriage, the Catholic Republican governor says he believes people are born gay and that homosexuality is not a sin. And while he does not believe in gay marriage, he supports civil unions and has said the government should not be involved in an individual's sexuality.

The bill passed both houses of the New Jersey Legislature with bipartisan support in June. Assemblyman Tim Eustace, who sponsored the bill and is openly gay, described the therapy as "an insidious form of child abuse." The bill would make it illegal for a professional counselor to "engage in sexual orientation change efforts with a person under 18." Therapy methods vary, but are often times associated with fundamentalist Christian groups who oppose homosexuality. Shock therapy is used in some instances.

His signing will most likely alienate him from Christian conservatives who say the debate is a parental rights issue, and who also believe being gay is a choice and a sin.

“I believe that exposing children to these health risks without clear evidence of benefits that outweigh these serious risks is not appropriate,” Christie will say. “Based upon this analysis, I sign this bill into law.”

Christie's blunt attitudes on limited government, the direction the GOP is taking and the best way to move the party forward have made waves among fellow republicans, especially Sen. Rand Paul (KY), the brash governor has become increasingly popular across all political spectrums. 

Even Democrats (54 percent according to a new Gallup poll) favor the Governor, making him the most popular potential 2016 presidential candidate.

Although he angered some Democrats by vetoing a bill that would have banned a specific type of long-range assault rifle on Friday and issued a conditional veto of a medical marijuana bill, requiring the approval of two doctors rather than one when prescribing marijuana to children, the governor still maintains a more centrist image and is considered more bipartisan than most in his party.

Christie says he could care less about the politics of politics, he prefers to govern with the radical and often unheard of notion of making decisions in the best interest of his people. He is willing to compromise if it benefits the electorate.

The Republican Party is in desperate need of a makeover, and no one knows that better than Christie, who may be the party's best chance at getting back into the White House.

But no one, not even members of his own party, can figure out exactly what kind of Republican "type" Christie is, and that may be the best thing he has going for him. He can adapt. He's a little bit of a wild card.

Back in February, Christie threw his support behind Medicaid expansion under the president’s health care law, becoming the eighth GOP governor to buck his party and align himself with President Barack Obama on the issue, according to Politico. But then he vetoed making that expansion permanent a few months later, saying that he wanted the opportunity to pull out of the program if the Obama administration cuts its funding for any reason.

He said he didn't want his state married to the program if the federal government doesn't live up to its promises. He did not want to "deplete the state's fiscal resources and restructure government in a significant manner."

Christie says he is not casting himself as a new sort of Republican. He is not a liberal. He is not selling himself as a moderate. He just wants the party to loosen its ties with ideological and orthodox figures, be more pragmatic and win in 2016.

“If we don’t win, we don’t govern. And if we don’t govern all we do is shout to the wind. And so I am going to do anything I need to do to win," Christie said to the Republican National Committee in Boston.

 

Reach Editor-in-Chief Brianna Sacks here



 

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