A new ban on “conversion therapy” for minors has been enacted in the traditionally conservative Republican state of Utah, which joined 18 other states outlawing the practice.
Last year lawmakers sought to get a ban through the state legislature but failed after repeated amendments left the bill wayward. So, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, the longest serving governor in the United States, requested that state regulators look into the practice and assess the evidence supporting either its damaging or benign effects on youth.
“I certainly have concerns about some of the abuse that I’ve heard talked about, but I’m not a psychologist,” Herbert said during a news conference last June, when he announced his request.
“This is not my background. I’m going to rely upon the experts to tell us what should be done, or not be done, or how it should be done.”
The practice of attempting to convert a homosexual adolescent into a heterosexual one has been widely discredited by major psychological organizations like the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“The American Psychiatric Association (APA) today reiterates its long-standing opposition to the practice,” reads a statement from 2018 on the APA’s website.
“Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation,” reads a statement from 2000 on the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“The American Psychological Association expressed support for a report released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration calling for an end to the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ for children and youth,” reads a statement from 2015 on the APA’s website.
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“We want to thank Governor Herbert and his administration for not allowing this issue to be politicized,” the executive director of Equality Utah Troy Williams said at a Wednesday news conference announcing the news according to NPR.
“He saw how polarizing this was becoming, and he made the decision to allow science to prevail over politics. He kept his word to the LGBTQ community, and we are deeply grateful to him.”
Even though Republicans control both houses of the Utah state legislature and the governorship, it joined a group of 18 states that have banned conversion therapy—all but a few of which have democratic majorities: California (2012); New Jersey (2013); Oregon and Illinois (2015); Vermont (2016); Rhode Island, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Nevada (2017); Washington, Maryland, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Delaware (2018); and New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, Maine, and, now, Utah (2019).
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