Hearing planned on conversion therapy ban

KINGSTON, N.Y. » A proposed Ulster County law that would ban the use of conversion therapy — a controversial treatment aimed at changing the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of an individual — will be the subject of a public hearing in May.

Members of the county Legislature voted unanimously and without discussion Tuesday to set a public hearing on the proposed bill, which would prohibit therapists who practice in the county from using conversion therapy, reparative therapy or other practices that seek to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of anyone under the age of 18.

The law, if enacted, would make practicing conversion therapy a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or one year in jail. The law would also require that applicable licensing boards be notified of the crime.

Legislator Jonathan Heppner, who proposed the legislation, has called conversion therapy “a very disturbing practice” that he said can lead to longterm psychological damage. Heppner, D-Woodstock, said conversion therapy has been discredited by virtually every American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organization, including the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association.

Conversion therapy is the use of psychological or spiritual intervention in an attempt to change an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual. The county’s proposed law also would ban the use of such therapies on transgender and nonbinary-gender individuals.

Jake Salt, program director for the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston, lauded the county’s proposed law during the public comment period of Tuesday’s Legislature meeting.

“The amount of havoc that so-called conversion therapies can wreak on young people’s lives is dramatic,” he said, noting that, in some cases, the practice can drive an individual to commit suicide.

The use of conversion therapy on minors is banned in nine states, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and Rhode Island. In 2016, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned public and private health care insurers from covering the practice and prohibited various mental health facilities across from using the practice on minors.

A law banning conversion therapy on minors passed the state Assembly earlier this year, but it has stalled in the state Senate.