WATCH: Al Franken destroys Education appointee Betsy DeVos over her support for gay conversion therapy
Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D) left no doubt which way he will be voting for President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Education, hammering appointee Betsy DeVos for her and her family’s funding on anti-LGBTQ groups and causes.
Noting the Michigan billionaire has no background in the educational field outside of attacking teachers unions, Franken directed his most caustic objections at the way she and her family have attacked the LGBTQ community.
“Mrs. DeVos, your family has a long history of supporting anti-LGBT causes including donating millions of dollars to groups that push conversion therapy, the practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” Franken began. “For example, you and your family have given over $10 million to Focus On the Family, an organization that currently states on its website that, ‘homosexual strugglers can and do change their sexual behavior and identity.'”
“Mrs. DeVos, conversion therapy has been widely discredited and rejected for decades by every mainstream medical and mental health organization as neither medically nor ethically appropriate,” the senator continued. “It has been shown to lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide, particularly in LGBT youth. In fact, many of the leaders and founders of conversion therapy, including both religious ministries and mental health professionals, have not only publicly renounced it but have issued WATCH: Al Franken destroys Education appointee Betsy DeVos over her support for gay conversion therapy: