CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP)- Aiming to protect children whose parents enroll them in anti-gay camp and other conversion programs, a Nevada lawmaker argued Monday at a legislative hearing that the state should ban professional therapists from attempting to talk people out of homosexuality.
Most national organizations of medical professionals oppose conversion therapy because they say sexual orientation is not a mental condition, and the method leads kids to kill themselves.
“Conversion therapy is nothing more than getting LGBTQ youth to hate themselves,” Sen. David Parks said.
The Las Vegas Democrat has proposed the state urge medical boards to discipline licensed professionals who attempt to stamp out gay people’s sexual desires.
But it would ultimately outlaw willing adults and children’s parents from seeking medical professionals to conduct the treatment, which opponents said would undermine parents and individuals’ right to seek wellness in ways they deem appropriate.
Senate Bill 201 would apply to psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, family therapists and other clinical counselors. It would not apply to religious counselors like ministers.
“As a clinician, you’re supposed to deal specifically with medicine and science,” said Sen. Pat Spearman, D-North Las Vegas. “As a pastoral counselor, you can bring in all types of dogmatic inferences that you want to, and that’s OK.”
California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed the nation’s first state ban on conversion therapy in 2012.
Medical organizations opposed to the practice include the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American Counseling Association and National Association of Social Workers.
Statements from those organizations over the past 20 years say research has debunked any psychological advantages of conversion therapy and instead showed it causes people to retreat from society, hide their identity or kill themselves.
