BILL PASSES FIRST TEST IN HOUSE

State lawmakers take first step toward banning conversion therapy for minors.

Mathew Shurka told a Colorado House committee that he hardly spoke a word to his mother and sisters for three years because a therapist who promised to cure him of his “same-sex attractions” told him he had “too many female role models in his life.”

Shurka said he thought about suicide during those years in conversion therapy. He quit going when he was 21 and now travels the country testifying against the practice.

He was in Colorado on Wednesday when state lawmakers took the first step toward banning conversion therapies that claim to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors.

House Bill 1129 would prohibit mental health professionals from practicing these kinds of therapies on patients under 18 and make advertising conversion therapy a deceptive trade practice under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. It passed out of a House committee on an 8-3 vote, with one Republican joining Democrats in supporting the bill.

“I find myself in a very interesting position here as the youngest member on this panel and also a Republican,” said Rep. Colin Larson, R-Littleton. “This is a generational issue, to be frank with you.”

Larson, 32, said he grew up with friends who were openly gay and never gave it a second thought. He voted yes, he said, to protect other kids like his childhood friends from being pressured into conversion therapy as minors.

“This protects them until the age of 18 so they have the ability to grow up and explore who they are and not be forced to do anything until they are a legal consenting adult,” Larson said.

Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, voted no Wednesday because of concerns about the legality of the bill. Several people who testified against a ban argued that it would infringe on the free speech of therapists and the rights of parents and kids who want to seek out this kind of counseling.

A Republican-controlled Colorado Senate voted down four previous iterations of the bill, but with Democrats now in control of both chambers Rep. Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, thinks this is the year it will pass.

The American Psychological Association opposes any reparative or conversion therapy, as do most other major medical and mental health organizations. The APA says the practice poses “serious potential to harm young people.”

Former Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican, testified for the bill, saying she views it as a consumer protection bill because conversion therapy, in her opinion, is fraud.