Michigan lawmakers to introduce legislation banning conversion therapy for minors on Thursday
Legislation in Michigan to ban mental health professionals from performing conversion therapy on minors under penalty of losing their licenses will be introduced this week.
Conversion therapy, the practice of intervening to alter an individual’s gender expression or sexuality to conform to heterosexuality, involves psychologically damaging processes, bill sponsor Rep. Jason Hoskins (D-Southfield) told the Michigan Advance. On Thursday, Hoskins said he, along with other representatives and members of the state Senate, will introduce bills to protect minors from such practices.
“At the end of the day, this is really torture for kids,” Hoskins said. “You’re growing up, you’re figuring things out and I think children should have that opportunity to do that.”
LGBTQ youth who were put in conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide than their peers who had not been through conversion therapy, according to research from The Trevor Project and published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Many major health organizations oppose conversion therapy.
Since 1998, the American Psychiatric Association has opposed conversion therapy and said in a statement on its website that, “gender diverse patients have been shown to benefit from gender-affirming therapies.”
https://michiganadvance.com/2023/05/17/michigan-lawmakers-to-introduce-legislation-banning-conversion-therapy/
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