KO ‘barbaric conversion’ of gays – bill
STATE SENATE Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco opposes opening a one-year legal window for child sex abuse survivors to revive old cases — yet he supports the concept for other victims.
The powerful Syracuse Republican is against a bill designed to make it easier for child sex abuse survivors to seek justice, largely because of a provision that would give victims who can no longer sue under current law one year to bring cases.
At the same time, DeFrancisco is pushing legislation that would give patients the ability to bring medical malpractice cases beginning from when they discover the error, not from when the mistake occurred, which is current law. The bill has a provision to open a one-year window to revive old cases that are currently time-barred.
DeFrancisco and other Senate Republicans also have routinely supported legislation every two years to extend the statute of limitations for soldiers exposed to Agent Orange between 1961 and 1975 — cases that would have otherwise been time-barred since 1985.
DeFrancisco recently told the Daily News that the issues are “totally unrelated” and that he has been “totally consistent” with his actions.
“There’s a big difference between a forever statute of limitation and one that provides a limited increase in the time when someone had no knowledge whatsoever of the negligence,” he said.
But Kathryn Robb, a child sex abuse victim and advocate for legislation, called it a “slap in the face to survivors” and “brazenly hypocritical.”
“His inconsistencies are alarming to me,” Robb said. “It’s clear he’s talking out of both sides of his whatever.”
With just three scheduled days left in the state legislative session, Gov. Cuomo last week said he does not expect the Child Victims Act to pass this year.
His comments angered survivors, because they came just two days after he introduced a Child Victims Act of his own that was identical to a bill passed this month by the Assembly.
The Cuomo and Assembly bills would allow survivors to bring civil cases up until their 50th birthdays, and felony criminal cases until their 28th birthdays.
Currently, victims have until their 23rd birthdays to bring such cases.
The bills also include a oneyear window to revive old cases and treats public and private institutions identically. Currently, those abused in a public setting, such as a school, have 90 days from the incident to formally file an intent to sue.
The Senate GOP has shown no inclination thus far to take up the measure, which is strongly opposed by such groups as the Catholic Church, other religious organizations and the Boy Scouts because of the one-year lookback.
On Sunday, a group of abuse survivors taped their mouths with red duct tape and gathered in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Ave. in support of the Child Victims Act.
They held up a long banner that read “Father Protect Our Children” and signs urging the Catholic Church to support the legislation.
“It has been very hard for me to enter the church just knowing that my church is not doing anything to help prevent this for children like myself,” said Ana Wagner, 37, an abuse survivor and member of the Stop Abuse Campaign.
“The demonstration today was basically to ask my church to please put aside the politics and put our children first,” she added. CONVERSION THERAPY that aims to turn gay people straight would be banned in New York under a new bill in the City Council.
The proposal — sponsored by Council Speaker Melissa MarkViverito, and being fast-tracked to a hearing Monday — would make it illegal for anyone to charge a fee to perform therapy to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
It goes beyond legislation to ban the practice for minors that has passed elsewhere in the country, by prohibiting it for adults as well.
“It’s barbaric,” Mark-Viverito told the Daily News of the practice. “The idea that you can change a person’s sexual identity though some kind of conversion therapy is . . . just ridiculous.”
In New York State, Gov. Cuomo has signed an order prohibiting health insurance companies from covering gay conversion therapy. Legislation to outlaw the practice for minors has passed the state Assembly several times, most recently in April, but it’s never made it through the Republican-controlled Senate.
Under the city bill, therapists could be hit with a $1,000 fine for each violation of the ban on charging for services designed to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
Individuals who might do such therapy for free, such as clergy members, would not be affected.