The California State Senate approved a bill that would make California the first state in the nation to ban the use of conversion therapy, a type of psychotherapy aimed at turning LGBT people straight, among minors.
“The entire medical community is opposed to these phony therapies,” said Senator Ted W. Lieu (D-Torrance) at the hearing. “These non-scientific efforts have led in some cases to patients later committing suicide, as well as severe mental and physical anguish. It’s not just that people are wasting their time and money on these therapies that don’t work, it’s that these therapies are dangerous.”
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Claudia Miles, a psychotherapist in private practice in Marin County, agreed.
“It is extremely harmful to convince a child or teen that there is something fundamentally wrong with him when it is recognized and acknowledged that in fact, there is not,” she said. “The damage done in this equation is unimaginable.”
At the hearing, Lieu also argued that the therapy was invalid because it treated homosexuality as a disorder.
“Being lesbian or gay or bisexual is not a disease or mental disorder for the same reason that being a heterosexual is not a disease or a mental disorder,” Lieu said. “The medical community is unanimous in stating that homosexuality is not a medical condition.”
Related articles
- Lawmakers oppose gay-to-straight conversion therapy for minors (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
- Gay Conversion Therapy Bill Passes California State Senate (inquisitr.com)
