Hein signs bill banning conversion therapy

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Executive Michael Hein on Friday signed legislation that bars 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.

“With this law, we are saying loud and clear that Ulster County will not tolerate psychological or physical abuse of our youth in any form, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and that the disgraceful pseudoscience practice of conversion therapy, in all its forms, has no place here,” Hein said announcing his decision.

The law makes practicing conversion therapy on minors in Ulster County a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or one year in jail. The law also requires that applicable licensing boards be notified about any practitioner violating the law.

Legislator Jonathan Heppner, who pushed for the law, said Hein’s action makes Ulster County “one of the only counties in New York to ban the horrific practice of gay conversion therapy on minors.”

“As this practice, which has been disproven by science and medicine, falls further into the shadows, we are shining a light and making a statement that it has no place in our community,” said Heppner, D-Woodstock.

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 law also bans the use of such therapies on transgender and nonbinary-gender persons younger than 18.

The Ulster County Legislature voted unanimously in June in favor of the ban.

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 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 stalled in the state Senate.