Sunday, May 28, 2017 | 2 a.m.
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At least nine states now ban “conversion therapy” for minors, a discredited method meant to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, after Nevada and Connecticut this month joined others in prohibiting the practice.
Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada last week signed Senate Bill 201, making it illegal for any licensed medical or mental health care professional to provide sexual orientation or gender conversion therapy to anyone under 18 years of age, a statement from his office said.
“Conversion therapy has been disavowed by medical experts and is considered a non-effective method of treatment that can cause harm to an adolescent,” Sandoval said. “This law will help protect some of our state’s most vulnerable youth.”
In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a law on May 10 that bans the “destructive and discredited practice” of conversion therapy.
“At a time when we see harassment increasing against anyone perceived as being different, at a time when we see the rights of our friends and neighbors being threatened by the national government, at a time when we see LGBTQ youth turning to suicide at record rates, to remain silent is to be complicit,” Malloy said in a statement published after the signing.
New York banned the practice through an executive order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in February that introduced regulations cutting off insurance payments for the practice.
That makes at least nine states that have take steps to prevent mental health professionals from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The others are California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, Oregon and Illinois, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights and others who track legislation.
The center said similar laws had been passed in several municipalities, including Seattle, Cincinnati and Miami Beach, and are pending as bills in about a dozen more states. Washington, D.C., also has a law banning the practice.
“What has been really striking about all the legislative debates is how little mainstream opposition there is,” said Shannon Minter, the center’s legal director.
Conversion therapy, sometimes called “reparative therapy” or “sexual reorientation,” is rooted in Freud’s idea that people are born bisexual and can move along a continuum from one end to the other. The is no single, agreed upon approach; the therapy may include the sort of thought-stopping techniques used to control anxiety and depression, as well as religious counseling.
The legislative process in some states has reflected an attempt to avoid interfering with religious liberties and parental rights by focusing only on public funds and mental health care providers. As legislators have debated the bans, many have noted during the legislative process that conversion therapy has been discredited by experts, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association, and that its methods have sometimes been abusive.
Connecticut’s law, for example, banned health care professionals, or anyone else engaged in trade or commerce, from “efforts to change” a youth, while allowing other forms of counseling that provide support in a “neutral” way.
A similar focus prevailed in Nevada, where the bill was passed only after legislators changed it to clarify its intent — that the law would apply only to mental health providers, and not to pastors or other religious counselors. Sandoval said such clarifications were meant to avoid interference with “religious liberties or rights of conscience.”
When asked about that change, Sen. David R. Parks, the Democratic sponsor, said if a licensed mental health provider also provides counseling as a pastor, for example, “they must weigh where their professional role ends and where their pastoral duties begin,” he said in an email reply to a question.
The distinction was also made in the law signed in April by Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico.
“This bill does not prohibit a minor’s ability to seek counsel, advice, or guidance from a counselor if they are trying to understand their feelings, nor does it prohibit religious organizations from freely practicing their religion,” she said in a statement after signing the bill into law.
But she also expressed concern that the ban can infringe on parental rights, a view shared by legislators in some states.
“I do not lightly enact legislation that makes government a party to the medical care decision-making of a parent and child,” she said. “Yet, at the same time, numerous reputable medical organizations like the American Psychological Association have rebuked this practice, stating it may lead to depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, self-hatred, substance abuse, and suicide.”
Connecticut state Rep. Robert C. Sampson, a Republican, said that he supports the rights of the LGBTQ community to “live the lives they choose,” but he voted against his state’s bill, which he saw as an example of the government overreaching into the private lives of its citizens.
“Finally, unless money is exchanged, this bill does not apply, meaning churches could still legally engage in the practice,” he said in an email.
The first federal report on ending conversion therapy came from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2015, which called it “coercive” and “harmful.” The report came after then-President Barack Obama called for an end to conversion therapy for minors. That was in response to a petition prompted by the 2014 suicide of Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year old transgender girl, who left a note about her time in conversion therapy.
Last year, the official Republican Party platform tacitly endorsed conversion therapy for the first time with a line that supported the “right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.”
But Minter of the NCLR, said that the bans have “significant bipartisan support.”
“We don’t see mainstream Republican opposition to these bills,” he said.
In New Mexico, Sen. Carroll H. Leavell, a Republican who opposed the bill, said: “I think everyone should be treated equal. It is a social issue and I was not comfortable with it.”
