The Connecticut House of Representatives voted 141-8 to ban conversion therapy for youths under 18 years of age. The Senate followed rapidly with a 36-0 vote in favor of the ban, and the bill was almost immediately signed by the governor. We applaud this decisive action by the House and Senate to expeditiously pass this bill. Conversion therapy is the practice or trying to change gay or lesbian sexual orientation to a heterosexual orientation and is also the practice of trying to stop transgender youth from transitioning to their own gender identity. We join the major counseling and psychiatric associations in opposing conversion therapy and applaud the Connecticut Legislature and governor for decisively banning this practice.
Conversion therapy can take many forms, ranging from prayer and talk therapy to aversion therapies such as electroshock treatment or vomit-inducing chemicals. Regardless of the form, the overall effect of such interventions is uniformly the shaming and stigmatizing of youths for who they are. Statistics show that gay, lesbian and transgendered youth who are rejected by family and friends because of their orientation or identity are eight times more likely to commit suicide than those who are not rejected. Conversion therapy is the most heinous and direct vehicle for the outright rejection of a youth’s orientation or identity and is therefore extremely dangerous. The Connecticut House of Representatives recognized this danger by almost unanimously banning this pseudo-treatment.
