Rep. Ing Rips Lt. Gov.’s Conversion Therapy Stance

Rep. Kaniela Ing. Courtesy photo.

This morning Lt. Gov. Doug Chin, a Hawai‘i congressional candidate, announced he would be testifying on behalf on Senate Bill 270 to ban conversion therapy.

Rep. Kaniela Ing of Maui, who is running against Chin in the first congressional district primary, released the following statement:

Doug Chin has spent his entire adult life as a conservative pastor preaching anti-gay and anti-choice sermons. In 2016, his church held a pray-the-gay-away conference, so it’s very frustrating to me to see him flip-flop now that he is running for Congress and voters are questioning his right-wing beliefs.

Clearly, his press release is a political stunt, as he noted support for the Senate bill, but not the House version of the bill, HB-1266, that I sponsored.

I am incredibly disappointed to see my opponent use this kind of issue for political gain. Children are committing suicide over conversion therapy; It’s a matter of life and death, not winning or losing an election.

Elected officials have a duty to represent and protect their constituency all the time, not just when it is politically appetizing. If Chin truly had a change of heart, he would apologize for his years of denouncing LGBTQ people and denounce the destructive teachings of his Church.