The cover story in WORLD’s June 30, 2018 issue shows how a bill to ban “conversion therapy” (sometimes called “reparative therapy”) in California, even for consenting adults, is in a pipeline to passage. Since press coverage has been biased in favor of the bill, here are a few voices of opposition from testimony before the California Assembly’s Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee.

Christians in China are used to living in a one-party dictatorship. Christians in the United States are not, so this spring many are gasping as the California Legislature moves toward passing Assembly Bill 2943, which makes “conversion therapy” illegal. Under the bill, which Gov. Jerry Brown expects to sign into law, it is likely to be unlawful to advise a same-sex-attracted adult on ways to fight his or her urges, even though many wish to do so (see sidebar below).

For California residents dealing with unwanted, same-sex attraction, certain members of the state Legislature have a clear message: What you want for your life isn’t as important as what we think you should want. In fact, what you want isn’t really valid.

How else can one read California Assembly Bill 2943? The bill passed the California State Assembly in April and awaits a hearing in the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Nancy Pearcey’s new book, Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, helps us understand how to respond when a Wisconsin resident born male becomes a high-school prom queen and a Missouri resident born female sues a school district. Pearcey is a professor at Houston Baptist University and the author of Total Truth and other books.

A Denver-based foundation this week released an ad campaign aimed at winning converts to the LGBT cause. But critics argue the campaign ignores the more complex questions surrounding what the government labels a protected class and when it should intervene. 

The Gill Foundation, run by wealthy LGBT activist Tim Gill, unveiled the “Beyond I Do” campaign—which includes video, print, and radio ads—on Wednesday. The campaign is projected to get at least $15 million in donated media support, including TV and radio time and billboard space.

We are seeing the revenge of the pronoun. It (I use the word advisedly) has long been abused by practitioners of English, and its time has come. It has sat in the shadow of the noun, created for no other lot than to give the noun rest, some second-string surrogate, forever the bridesmaid and never the bride. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” said the Baptist happily of Jesus. But the pronoun is not happy.

No more. Pronouns are having their day.

While the #MeToo movement continues to bring a flood of people speaking out about sexual assault and harassment, a tragic undercurrent goes far less noticed: a swelling tide of vulnerable populations who often don’t—or can’t—speak for themselves.