Senate advances curb on conversion therapy
Offering it to minors would be banned for professionals
After a lengthy debate across a partisan divide, the Maryland Senate advanced a bill on Tuesday that would forbid licensed mental health professionals to offer therapy to minors that is intended to change one's sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Senate took the rare step of taking a vote on whether to move the bill forward for final approval, and only the chamber’s14 Republicans opposed it.
Many of them called the legislation unclear and too broad, suggesting it could discourage therapists or social workers from treating lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender youth.
Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire, an Anne Arundel County Republican, said the legislation is flawed because “if you truly believe this is child abuse, you’d say child abuse should never occur.”
“This bill says it’s OK unless you’re a licensed professional,” he said. “Either you believe it is child abuse and we deal with it the proper way, or it’s a ruse to get a political viewpoint ... out there.”
But proponents said they have the support of the major professional organizations representing counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists, who all already agree that conversion therapy doesn’t work and can be harmful.
Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr., the bill’s sponsor and the first openly gay member of the Maryland Senate, said lawmakers and those groups agreed that, given concerns that members of President Donald J. Trump’s administration support conversion therapy, Maryland needed to act.
In floor debate, Republicans noted that no one testified in the bill’s hearing last month that they had personally been harmed by being subjected to conversion therapy. But Madaleno said later that 1,200 Maryland youth had called a suicide prevention hotline for those who identify as LGBT last year.
“These are young people struggling in our state,” he said. “No therapist should try to fix one’s sexual orientation or gender identity because there’s nothing to be fixed.”