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Senator Al Franken Questions Betsy DeVos on History of Supporting Conversion Therapy

Senator Al Franken Questions Betsy DeVos on History of Supporting Conversion Therapy

Betsy DeVos, Al Franken, Senator Al Franken

Trump’s Secretary of Education pick has a troubling background. 

For the past week, President-Elect Donald Trump's picks to fill out his cabinet have been getting grilled by senate democrats on Capitol Hill.

Last night it was potential Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' turn, and amid questions pertaining to gun violence in schools and children with disabilities, came a tangentially relevant question from Senator Al Franken.

After summarizing the horrors of conversion therapy, stressing that it's been widely discredited, can cause depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness and suicide in LGBTQ youth, and reminding DeVos that she and her family have given more than $10 million to Focus on the Family, an organization that embraces the draconian method, Senator Franken simply asked: "Mrs. DeVos, do you still believe in conversion therapy?"

"I've never believed in that," DeVos said. "First of all, let me say I fully embrace equality and I believe in the innate value of every single human being and that all students, no matter their age, should be able to attend a school and feel safe and be free from discrimination." But DeVos' claims are at odds with her history, where she and her family have supported anti-LGBTQ organizations.

Watch the exchange, below.

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