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"The draconian and deadly practice... is nothing more than physical, mental, and emotional torture," said the head of the National Association of Social Workers' Kentucky chapter.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates celebrated on Wednesday after Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order banning "conversion therapy" for minors across the state, citing medical experts' warnings about the dangerous practice that attempts to change a person's gender identity or sexual orientation.
"Kentucky cannot possibly reach its full potential unless it is free from discrimination by or against any citizen—unless all our people feel welcome in our spaces, free from unjust barriers and supported to be themselves," Beshear said in a statement. "Conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it can cause significant long-term harm to our kids, including increased rates of suicide and depression. This is about protecting our youth from an inhumane practice that hurts them."
Specifically, as Beshear's order details:
According to a 2021 survey by the Trevor Project, 75% of LGBTQ+ youth in America reported that they had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at least once in their lifetime. The Trevor Project's 2023 survey reported that 60% of LGBTQ+ youth in America reported that they had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity within the prior year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that LGBTQ+ youth face significant health disparities compared to their peers. The Kentucky Medical Association opposes conversion therapy in its policy manual.
In the 2023 survey by the Trevor Project, 15% of LGBTQ+ youth reported being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy. In that same survey, 41% of LGBTQ+ youth reported seriously considering attempting suicide in the past year and 14% reported they had attempted suicide in the past year. Of those LGBTQ+ who had attempted suicide, 28% reported having been threatened with conversion therapy and 28% reported having been subjected to conversion therapy.
Kentucky on Wednesday joined 23 other states and the District of Columbia in fully banning the practice for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Four other states plus Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, have partial bans for youth.
"We applaud Gov. Andy Beshear for his bold and necessary action to protect Kentucky's LGBTQ youth from the harmful practice of conversion therapy," said Fairness Campaign executive director Chris Hartman in a statement. "Today Gov. Beshear sends a crystal-clear message to all of Kentucky's LGBTQ kids and their families—you are perfect as you are."
While some Republican lawmakers in the state opposed Beshear's order and vowed to fight it, mental health leaders offered praise. Kentucky Mental Health Coalition's Dr. Sheila Schuster and Kentucky Psychological Association's Eric Russ both welcomed the move, with Russ declaring that it "will save lives."
Brenda Rosen, head of the National Association of Social Workers' Kentucky chapter, similarly cheered the ban, stressing that "the draconian and deadly practice of 'conversation therapy'... is nothing more than physical, mental, and emotional torture."
"We celebrate with individuals and communities across Kentucky and are eternally grateful that during September's National Suicide and Prevention Month, Kentucky is powering forward to save the lives of our youth and ensuring that our LGBTQ+ citizens know they are loved and valued in the Bluegrass state," Rosen said. "Thank you, Gov. Beshear, for your steadfast commitment to ensuring that Kentucky leads in compassion, kindness, and integrity."
The order was also praised by national advocates, including Born Perfect, a survivor-led campaign by the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
"We applaud Gov. Beshear's leadership in protecting LGBTQ youth and their families from so-called conversion therapy, which has been rejected as unethical and harmful by every leading medical and mental health association in the country," Born Perfect co-founder Mathew Shurka. "This is a landmark day for Kentuckians and survivors across the state."
As the Lexington Herald-Leaderreported Wednesday:
The move from Beshear comes as legislative efforts to ban conversion therapy have floundered—with those efforts coming primarily from Democrats—and as GOP efforts to limit the rights of trans youth have ramped up.
In 2023, Republicans proposed a raft of anti-LGBTQ bills, including [a] ban on gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth against the advice from Kentucky doctors who warned of the harm it would bring. That policy became law last summer.
Months later, during the 2023 race for the Kentucky governor's mansion, then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron ran a gubernatorial campaign against Beshear that hinged largely on an anti-trans sentiment.
The U.S. Supreme Court—which has a right-wing supermajority—has agreed to take up a challenge to Tennessee's 2023 ban on gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth. Its ruling next session is expected to impact policies across the country.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org.The Trevor Project, which serves LGBTQ+ youth, can be reached at 1-866-488-7386, by texting "START" to 678-678, or through chat at TheTrevorProject.org. Both offer 24/7, free, and confidential support.
"Rest assured that the passage of this discriminatory bill would have a detrimental and real-life impact on the trans community," said one Florida ACLU leader.
The ACLU of Florida on Friday led condemnation of a bill passed by the Republican-controlled lower chamber of the state Legislature that "seeks to deny the legal existence of transgender individuals by requiring individuals to identify as their sex assigned at birth instead of their gender on their driver's licenses and ID cards."
Dubbed the Trans Erasure Bill by opponents, H.B. 1639 passed by a vote of 75-33. The ACLU notes that the legislation "also requires health plans to cover the widely discredited practice of conversion therapy and creates additional obstacles for health plans to cover gender-affirming care."
"H.B. 1639 is harmful, vague, and does nothing to improve the lives of Floridians," ACLU of Florida policy strategist NR Hines said in a statement. "It is eerily silent on the consequences for transgender individuals who identify their gender on their driver's license or other government-issued identification instead of their sex assigned at birth."
"It weaponizes state agencies and private insurance companies to threaten the safety and inclusion of transgender people," they asserted. "It is a cruel bill aimed at erasing transgender Floridians out of public life entirely. We have deep concerns about the life-altering impacts on the trans community."
Hines continued:
Last month, we learned of the death of a transgender student after they experienced violence on school grounds in Oklahoma. Nex Benedict should still be alive today. While this violence didn't occur in Florida, the fear and hate towards trans people that some elected officials are spreading directly leads to these unsafe situations.
Rest assured that the passage of this discriminatory bill would have a detrimental and real-life impact on the trans community. Thankfully, there is currently no Senate companion bill, and Senate leadership has stated the bill will not be heard.
"We hope this remains true," Hines added. "Trans people belong and deserve the freedom to be who they are."
LGBTQ+ rights—and especially trans rights—are under attack across the country. The ACLU is currently tracking 471 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in a majority of states, including 11 pieces of proposed legislation in Florida.
Last year, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a failed GOP presidential candidate, signed a bundle of bills that activists condemned as the most extreme slate of anti-trans laws in modern history. Among these were S.B. 254, which bans gender-affirming care for minors, while prohibiting nurse practitioners from providing such healthcare to adults.
Last June, federal Judge Robert Hinkle temporarily blocked the enforcement of certain provisions of S.B. 254, saying they constituted "purposeful discrimination" against transgender people.
DeSantis also signed H.B. 1069, which expands the so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" law to prohibit educators from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K-12.
H.B. 1521 empowers cisgender people to order transgender people to leave publicly available restrooms—in places including airports, sports arenas, convention centers, beaches, parks, and public and even private healthcare and educational institutions—or face criminal trespass charges that could result in up to a year behind bars for those who refuse to comply.
The Human Rights Campaign—the largest LGBTQ+ political advocacy group in the United States—issued a first-ever national emergency declaration for LGBTQ+ people last June, citing the torrent of discriminatory and dangerous legislation emerging from Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.
"Even with today's victory, there is still a long road ahead to ending conversion therapy," asserted one campaigner.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a lawsuit challenging Washington state's ban on the harmful practice of so-called "conversion therapy" for minors, a move welcomed by LGBTQ+ rights advocates.
The nation's highest court rejected an appeal from Washington, where the 2018 law prohibiting therapists from attempting to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity has been upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Although right-wing Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomasdissented, their votes fell one shy of the four needed to get the case on the court's shortlist for full review.
"We hope that lawmakers take the court's decision today as an opportunity to implement vital protections against this practice."
"The court's decision today to allow these protections to stand in place sends an affirming message to LGBTQ+ youth, their families, and survivors while honoring the victims we've lost to this abusive practice," said Janson Wu, senior director for state advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicides by young queer people.
"Protecting LGBTQ+ youth from conversion therapy is not controversial, yet there remain too many states [that] have yet to enact legislative protections," Wu added. "Even with today's victory, there is still a long road ahead to ending conversion therapy. We hope that lawmakers take the court's decision today as an opportunity to implement vital protections against this practice."
According toSCOTUSblog:
The conversion therapy question came to the Supreme Court in the case of Brian Tingley, a Washington marriage and family counselor. Tingley went to court in 2021 to challenge a state law, known as Senate Bill 5722, that added conversion therapy—the practice of seeking to change a declined person's sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling—for minors to the list of violations that can lead to the loss of a therapist's license. Tingley argued that the law violates the First Amendment because it would limit his right to speak freely when counseling his younger clients on issues relating to sexual orientation or gender identity.
Conversion therapy—which is often Christian in nature, with a heavy focus on "praying away the gay"—is a discredited practice that is fully bannedfor minors in 22 states and Washington, D.C., plus over 100 municipalities. Countries and territories including Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan have also banned the practice.
Minors who undergo conversion therapy often suffer severe mental trauma as a result. LGBTQ+ children subjected to the practice are nearly three times likelier to attempt suicide. One study found that more than 6 in 10 children tried to kill themselves after a therapist attempted to change their sexual orientation.
"Conversion therapy is not a 'free speech' issue, it is torture, and has been
deemed torture by experts. Full stop," said David Badash, founder and editor of The New Civil Rights Movement. "Reporters both-sidesing today's refusal by SCOTUS to take up a conversion therapy law challenge need to get this accurate."
"If your heart surgeon uses methods proven to not work, cause lifelong damage, and are not condoned by medical experts or organizations, would that be a free speech issue?" he added. "Same thing."
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org.The Trevor Project, which serves LGBTQ+ youth, can be reached at 1-866-488-7386, by texting "START" to 678-678, or through chat at TheTrevorProject.org. Both offer 24/7, free, and confidential support.