In a draft copy of its official party platform, the Texas Republican Party has classified LGBT people as aberrant and endorsed the discredited practice of so-called “reparative therapy,” which seeks to rid people of same-sex attractions and turn them heterosexual.

The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that the current draft of the party’s 2014 platform reads, in part, “(W)e oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values. We recognize the legitimacy and value of counseling which offers reparative therapy and treatment to patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle. No laws or executive orders shall be imposed to limit or restrict access to this type of therapy.”

Conversion therapy has been outlawed for minors in California and New Jersey as a form of child abuse.

Exodus International — the North American nerve center for the “ex-gay” therapy movement — shut its doors in June of 2013, admitting that its mission is impossible, that sexual orientation is immutable and that the notion that people can be religiously converted from one orientation to another is a sham.