A report calling for the ban of conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, and transgender youth-while highlighting alternative ways to discuss sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression with young people-has been released by the federal Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration, otherwise known as “SAMHSA”.
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Ending conversion therapy would be just the initial step in improving the lives of LGBT youth, the panel said, citing interpersonal, institutional and societal discrimination and bias against sexual and gender minorities it said still exists. None. Anything clearer than none?
But the new report, based on a consensus of mental health experts, stresses that “same-gender sexual orientation and variations in gender identity and gender expression are a part of the normal spectrum of human diversity and do not constitute a mental disorder”. Bills have been introduced in 18 states that would ban the process.
Leaders of national groups, such as Human Rights Campaign and National Center for Lesbian Rights, which have worked with state legislatures and partner groups to ban such practices, praised the report’s findings.
Conversion therapies are usually conducted in order to try to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity. SAMSHSA argues that these measures, along with the implementation of legislative or legal action, will eventually lead to the elimination of conversion therapy for minors. The practice has been “denounced by every mainstream medical and mental health association, including the American Medical Association and American Psychological Association”, the HRC blog reported.
The report echoes a call by the Obama administration in April for the end of conversion therapy, which has also been condemned by several major medical associations, including the American Psychiatric Association. “It is unsafe junk science that uses fear and shame to tell young people the only way to find love and acceptance is by changing the very nature of who they are”.
Griffin added: “Today’s new health report shows the extensive damage that so-called conversion therapy can cause and why it’s so urgent that we end it in all 50 states”.
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Better information, training, and education for behavioral health providers and decreasing stigma and negative attitudes toward LGBT identities also help eliminate harmful practices, it says. But, more importantly, young people are seeing their heroes stand up for them. “From representing LGBTQ youth institutionalized for their identity to advocating for laws protecting them from physical and psychological abuse, NCLR has been leading the fight to end these risky and discredited practices for decades”. “Unscrupulous quacks must not be allowed to warp young minds with their harmful pseudoscience”.
