NY Passes Conversion Therapy Ban, Transgender Protections

NEW YORK — State lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban therapists from trying to change kids' sexual orientation, likely making New York the 15th state to prohibit so-called conversion therapy. The Democratic state Legislature approved the measure alongside a set of protections for transgender people that Republicans stalled for years.

The bills are the most significant pieces of LGBT legislation to pass since New York legalized same-sex marriage in 2011. Both have support from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"As the Trump administration continues to roll back protections for LGBTQ Americans, today’s victory sends a strong message to LGBTQ people across the State of New York: your civil rights protections have the full force and effect of law," state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), who sponsored both bills, said in a statement Tuesday.

One bill prohibits mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation of any patient younger than 18. Doing so would be considered professional misconduct that would subject the provider to penalties.

Fourteen other states, including New Jersey or Connecticut, have similar bans on conversion therapy, which has been widely condemned as dangerous for LGBT people. The New York City Council passed its own ban last year.

Both chambers of the Legislature also approved the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA, which bans discrimination based on gender identity and adds transgender people to the list of those protected under the state's hate crimes law.

New York enacted a law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation in 2003, and the heavily Democratic state Assembly had passed GENDA 10 times before this year. But the law languished without a vote in the state Senate for more than a decade when the chamber was under Republican control.

The inaction made New York the only state in the Northeast without statutory protections for transgender people, according to Hoylman's office.

Cuomo, a Democrat, is likely to sign the bills into law. Both measures were included in his State of the State agenda released Tuesday.

"This is an issue of basic fairness, and today marks an historic day for those in the LGBTQ community who fought tirelessly for the passage of this bill," the governor said in a statement on GENDA's passage.

(Lead image: State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, sponsored both bills that lawmakers passed on Tuesday. Photo from the New York State Senate)