Colorado is one step closer to outlawing the use of so-called conversion therapy on minors, after the state’s Democrat-controlled House of Representatives today approved House Bill 1210 by a vote of 35-29. The bill now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it will be carried by out Sens. Pat Steadman, Lucia Guzmán, and Jessie Ulibarri.
The legislation, introduced by out Rep. Paul Rosenthal and cosponsored by fellow gay Reps. Joann Ginal, Dominick Moreno, and Daneya Esgar, would prohibit licensed physicians and mental health care providers from engaging in “efforts that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” according to the bill. It would not prohibit faith-based counselors from engaging in efforts to pray away the gay, carving out an exemption for “religious ministry,” provided the counselor “is not holding himself or herself out as a licensee at the time of the religious ministry.”
Source: Advocate.com