State Rep. Babette Josephs (D-182nd Dist.) last week introduced a bill that would prevent mental-health providers from offering so-called “conversion therapy” to minors.
The bill, introduced Oct. 3 and listed as HB 2691, would ban providers from engaging in “sexual-orientation change efforts” with those under 18. Efforts have been underway nationally to prohibit such therapies, with California becoming the first state in the nation to adopt such a measure.
A similar bill is also being worked on in New Jersey.
“We’ve all known for a long time that being LGBT is not considered by any reputable psychiatric or psychological organization to be a disease or a condition that’s wrong or not normal,” Josephs told PGN. “However, this therapy does exist.”
Josephs asserted that adults should be permitted to engage in conversion therapy of their own will but that minors should not be forced into it.
“Children who feel they may be LGBT should not be subjected, without any protection, to this so-called therapy,” she said, noting that, while she respects parental rights in most situations, this type of counseling threatens the welfare of children. “At the extreme of parental behavior, we do step in. There are certain things parents are not allowed to do to their children or with their children, and I believe this needs to be one of them.”
Although the bill refers to “sexual-orientation change,” a staffer for Josephs contended that it also extends to transgender minors.
Such therapies are defined as attempts to “change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward members of the same sex.”
Providers found to be in violation of the act can be subject to disciplinary action from their licensing entity.
“Mental-health provider” is defined broadly: a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychological assistant, marriage and family therapist, school psychologist, social worker, clinical counselor, interns or trainee and “any other person designated as a mental-health professional” under Pennsylvania law.
So far, Reps. Dan Frankel (D-23rd Dist.), Michael McGeehan (D-173rd Dist.) and Thomas Caltagirone (D-127th Dist.) have signed on as cosponsors. Josephs said she will circulate a cosponsor memo once the legislative session resumes Oct. 15.
Josephs, who is wrapping up her term after losing her primary to out challenger Brian Sims, said she doubts the bill will gain much traction in the scant few days left in the legislative calendar.
But, she said, she hopes the bill’s introduction will pave the way for the discussions necessary for future legislative successes.
“I mostly did this for the future,” she said. “My strategy was to start a debate and line up proponents for the future. This is something that needs to be addressed.”
She said she has not identified a lawmaker to carry the torch in the next session but will have that conversation as she drums up cosponsors.
Ed Coffin, campaign director at Peace Advocacy Network — which has been working to raise awareness about the practice of conversion therapy — welcomed the opportunity to increase attention to the issue.
“Since [California’s] SB 1172 passed, the media has been talking about conversion and reparative therapy and we’re seeing how many people have been completely unaware that this happens,” he said. “With our own campaign, more and more people are now contacting us and realizing that this is pretty much quackery that these people are doing. They’re destroying lives, and people are now seeing that and getting mad.”