Indiana lawmakers this week introduced a measure that would ban conversion therapy for minors by licensed counselors.
Senate Bill 32, written by Democratic Senate JD Ford, bans attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of anyone under 18 years of age.
Therapists who violate the order will be subject to disciplinary action, including the loss of their licenses.
“I hope my friends on the other side of the aisle see that this is not a biased case. It’s a life-saving case,” said Ford, the first openly gay lawmaker in Indiana. ‘I do not want to hear’ Oh, we can not hear your account because we’re dealing with Covid-19. ‘Yes, the pandemic is very important, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time. ‘
Conversion therapy, also known as recovery therapy or ex-gay therapy, has been widely discredited by an overwhelming majority of health care organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, and even the Department of Health. and Human Services during the Obama administration.
According to GLAAD, LGBTQ Americans who have undergone conversion therapy are nearly six times more likely to report high depression and eight times more likely to attempt suicide.
To date, 20 states and more than 80 cities have banned attempts to change sexual orientations or gender identities of minors. Except in Utah, most bans have been passed by Democratic-controlled lawmakers.
Passing such a ban in Indiana would be a turning point for the state, said Drew Anderson, a board member of the Indiana Stonewall Democrats.
“We can set a standard for other states that people consider Republican on the success of LGBTQ issues,” he said.
It would also distance Indiana from the anti-LGBTQ reputation he gained under Vice President Mike Pence, who was governor from 2013 to 2016 and represented it in Congress from 2001 to 2012.
As a member of Congress, Pence supported a constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman, and he opposed the Non-Discrimination in the Labor Market Act, which would protect LGBTQ employees, and the recall of ‘do not ask, do not tell it. ‘
As governor, he signs the law on restoring religious freedom, which some interpret as allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ customers. The law, passed in 2015, led to numerous boycotts and led to Angie’s List canceling a $ 40 million expansion to Indiana.
And as Donald Trump’s vice president, Pence is part of a government that opposes the protection of discrimination against LGBTQ Americans, bans members of transgender services, and allows child welfare agencies to reject same-sex prospective parents.
“Pence has attacked us at every point and placed such a negative cloud around the state because of his own views,” Anderson said. “We do so much to show people that Indiana is welcome in all communities.”
Activists claim that Pence also endorses conversion therapy, and the language on a 2000 website indicates that federal AIDS funds go to “institutions that provide assistance to those who want to change their sexual behavior.” In 2018, Pence’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, insisted he ‘never supported conversion therapy and now does not.’
Indiana lawmakers have previously tried to ban conversion therapy: in 2019, Democrats introduced a ban that could not be heard in the General Assembly, where Republicans still have super majorities in both chambers.
A major difference since then is the rise of former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg to national prominence. Buttigieg, the first openly gay Democratic presidential candidate, went from a dark horse to a frontrunner, winning most of the delegates in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Last month, President-elect Joe Biden announced that he wanted to nominate Buttigieg as secretary of transportation.
“The work that Pete did, just to be president, increased the acceptance of LGBTQ in Indiana tenfold,” Anderson said. “Ultimately, all these people know someone who’s gay, even if they have not done so yet.”
Buttigieg did not respond to a request for comment on the conversion therapy bill. In 2019, he claims that being gay is something he was born with.
“If I were a gay choice, it was a choice made far above my paycheck,” he said during a fundraiser for LGBTQ Victory Fund in 2019. “And that’s the thing I would like the Mike to do. “Fences of the world would understand. If you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me – your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
In some ways, the culture has increasingly moved away from conversion therapy: ex-gay leaders like John Paulk called it ‘disillusioned and discredited’ and condemned its apparent presence in the 2016 Republican Party platform, declaring support for the ‘right of parents’ has. to determine the right medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. ‘
Last year, Instagram announced it would reject ads and ban content to promote gay “cures”.
In December, more than 370 religious leaders, including Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, signed a declaration ending ‘all attempts to change, suppress or erase a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression’. .
Conservative groups argue that a ban on conversion therapy violates the First Amendment and that parents’ rights to do what they believe is best for their children are hampered.
“We are very opposed to the idea of banning what people can hear,” Micah Clark, president of the American Family Association of Indiana, said after the state ban was introduced in 2019, according to The Indianapolis Star. “I do not think we should ban what parents want for their children or what children want … It is a gag order against counselors.”
In 2019, a federal judge rejected a two-year-old conversion therapy ban in Tampa, Florida, and ruled that regulating psychotherapy is a state, not a municipal matter. ‘
Liberty Counsel, an evangelical legal advisory group in Orlando, led the legal challenge against the Tampa Ordinance, as well as unsuccessful attempts to lift a nationwide ban on conversion therapy in Maryland.
It also fought a ban in Boca Raton, Florida, which the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed in November. In a 2-1 ruling, the court sided with two therapists who challenged ordinances in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County that prohibited licensed counselors from treating minors with any counseling, practice, or treatment performed with the purpose to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender. identity.”
In the majority opinion, judges Britt Grant and Barbara Lagoa argued: “If there is a fundamental principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not ban the expression of an idea simply because society itself finds the idea offensive or unpleasant. not.”
This week, Republicans in the Indiana State House passed a separate bill banning licensed health care professionals from assisting minors in their gender transitions.
SB 224, sponsored by Republican states Sens Dennis Kruse and Jeff Raatz, will prohibit treatments intended to alter, strengthen or confirm a minor’s gender identity if the identity does not match the biological gender of the minor. . ‘
It will also prohibit attempts to alter, reinforce or confirm a minor’s perception of the minor’s own sexual attraction or conduct.
Kruse and Raatz declined to comment on whether their bill is also intended to ban conversion therapy.
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