Rep. Staneski Votes Against Conversion Therapy on Youths

From the Connecticut General Assembly: State Rep. Pam Staneski (Milford & Orange) supported a legislative proposal in the House of Representative to ban conversion therapy on youths.

The bill, HB-6695, An Act Concerning the Protection of Youth from Conversion Therapy, would prohibit any licensed professional from engaging in conversion therapy with a person under the age of eighteen in Connecticut. The bill currently has 66 members of the General Assembly as introducers and/or co-sponsors.

Conversion therapy is a controversial psychological treatment or counseling designed to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual.

“I co-sponsored this legislation because I do not believe Connecticut should be condoning or permitting this type of therapy. Right now there is abundance of evidence that shows thatconversion therapy may actually cause emotional or physical harm to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, (LGBT) particularly adolescents or young persons,” said Rep. Pam Staneski. “I cannot in good conscience support a so-called therapy which actually causes loss of sexual feeling, depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide.”

According to the American Medical Association which opposes conversion therapy, there are no professional standards or guidelines for how it is conducted.

According to a 2004 article in the British Medical Journal, early treatments in the 1960s and 70s included aversion therapy, such as shocking patients or giving them nausea-inducing drugs while showing them same-sex erotica.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have declared that clinicians should be aware that there is no evidence that sexual orientation can be altered through therapy, and that attempts to do so may be harmful. There is no empirical evidence adult homosexuality can be prevented if gender nonconforming children are influenced to be more gender conforming. Indeed, there is no medically valid basis for attempting to prevent homosexuality, which is not an illness. On the contrary, such efforts may encourage family rejection and undermine self-esteem, connectedness and caring, important protective factors against suicidal ideation and attempts.

Currently, six states have already banned conversion therapy on youths: California, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New Jersey and New York.

Image via the Connecticut General Assembly