Sarah Toce
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Chiles v. Salazar rejected a Colorado law that protects children from the harmful practice of conversion therapy. The decision puts at risk the safety and well-being of children in Colorado and 23 states around the country – including Washington state – with similar restrictions.
All major U.S. medical or mental healthcare associations have condemned conversion therapy, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
“Conversion therapy is a dangerous practice based on the hateful idea that being part of the LGBTQ+ community is an illness that requires treatment – it’s child abuse,” stated U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Chiles v. Salazar.
“Conversion therapy should be banned nationwide, and I have a bill to do just that because there is no real debate in the medical community – the overwhelming majority of mental health care providers know how harmful this practice is,” Murray added. “I’m not going to stop fighting for a world where every person, no matter their gender or sexual orientation, can live with dignity and without fear.”
Murray has consistently fought to ban conversion therapy and ensure that LGBTQ+ people have access to high-quality health care. Last year, Senator Murray, joined by Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-CA-36), reintroduced her Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act legislation that would ban conversion therapy – a practice that has been recognized by the national community of professionals in health, education, social work, and counseling as being both dangerous and useless. Murray first introduced the legislation in the 114th Congress and has pushed to pass it every Congress since.
In addition to Murray and Booker, the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act was co-sponsored by Senators Baldwin, Bennet, Blumenthal, Cantwell, Coons, Cortez-Masto, Duckworth, Durbin, Fetterman, Gillibrand, Hassan, Heinrich, Hickenlooper, Hirono, Kaine, Kelly, Kim, King, Klobuchar, Luján, Markey, Merkley, Murphy, Padilla, Reed, Rosen, Sanders, Schiff, Shaheen, Slotkin, Smith, Van Hollen, Warren, Welch, Whitehouse, and Wyden. The legislation was introduced in the House with 70 original cosponsors.
“There is no place in health care for practices rooted in hateful ideology that harms vulnerable children who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community,” said Booker. “Being LGBTQ+ is not an illness, and conversion therapy is a fraudulent treatment that tells children their identity is an illness that must be cured.”
The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act is endorsed by the Congressional Equality Caucus, Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG, American Academy of Pediatrics, Equality California, National Association of School Psychologists, Christopher Street Project, and Advocates for Trans Equality.
