Maine now becomes the 17th state in America to ban conversion therapy for minors after their governor, Janet Mills, signed the bill into law last Wednesday. The law takes effect 90 days after the Maine State Legislature adjourns next month.
The 16 other states that have enacted similar bans include New Jersey, California, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Hawaii, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts.
The Associated Press reports that Mills called conversion therapy “harmful” and “widely discredited” and that it “has no place in Maine.”
“By singing this bill into law today, we send an unequivocal message to young LGBTQ people in Maine and across the country: We stand with you, we support you, and we will always defend your right to be who you are,” Mills said.
Mary Bonauto, the Civil Rights Project director for GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, lauded the move.
“With this law, Maine is taking seriously its responsibility to ensure youth and parents who seek support are not subjected to fraudulent and dangerous practices under the guise of therapy,” she said.
Once the law takes effect, social workers, pharmacy technicians, school psychologists, and other professionals who advertise, administer, or offer conversion therapy to minors will face disciplinary actions from licensing boards.
Conversion therapy is a widely debunked practice that claims to be able to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Some organizations that are critical of the practice include the World Psychiatric Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the UK Council for Psychotherapy, and the Australian Psychological Society.
The past year saw two films bring conversion therapy to the forefront — “Boy Erased” and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.” Both films resulted in an increase of sign-ups to campaigns focused on banning gay conversion therapy.
How about banning all gender reassignment procedures until the individual is 18 as the next smart move?
yeah and banning abortions too for women under 18, right?
There is a reason minors don’t enjoy the same rights as adults – they don’t have sufficient intellectual development to make informed decisions in most cases. It’s the same reason adults are forbidden to engage in sexual activity with minors, the reason why minors cannot go out and buy guns at WalMart, cannot enter into binding contracts, etc. This doesn’t mean minors don’t sometimes do adult things like have sex among themselves. But it is the reason why parents have a right and duty to control what their minor child does or does not do. Having said that, we all… Read more »
Seventeen down, 33 states and a few territories to go.
Never give up. Thousands of young lives depend on eradicating this misbegotten practice and other variants of the “Pray the Gay Away” cult.
OK, y’all gotta read this. That is, if you’re into reading and maybe learning a thing or two: https://stopconversiontherapy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Mattachine-Society-Conversion-Therapy-White-Paper-FINAL-Updated-11.5.18.pdf Says the founder of the Mattichine Society and gay civil rights pioneer, Dr. Franklin Kameny: “There is no valid scientific evidence to show that homosexuality is a sickness, illness, neurosis or pathology of any kind . . . . Homosexuality is not intrinsically inferior to heterosexuality; it is not a second-best condition. The problems of the homosexual stem from discrimination by the heterosexual majority and are much more likely to be employment problems than emotional problems. There is no valid ethical… Read more »
A little common sense there. Especially when the post ops that aren’t happy with the day to day realities of surgery and treatments start suing
Yeah, well, you know what, “they’ve” tried various conversions on a few of us, lmao: various-Indigenous peoples, Africans, nature even. SURPRISE, ‘we people’ are whom we’ve always been much to their chagrin, much to the benefit of the world, period…. Anglo/Saxon-bullshit,… ‘as if’, like God-Creator/mother nature, got it wrong, how fucking rich is that? It’s clear, they are the problem, mostly. Those types; convert yourselves-try that, you’re the aliens of the human race, period, get an exorcism or something,… Hey, anybody ever see the movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn in “Suddenly Last Summer?” If you did or do,… Read more »