Closer Looks this week we’ll look at FL H0273, relating to conversion therapy. Although this bill died last year in the health quality subcommittee, this week it is trending again.
What is the History behind Conversion Therapy?
According to a UCLA study, approximately 698,000 LGBTQ Americans have undergone some form of conversion therapy. Throughout history, this therapy has consisted of talk therapy, but in some cases included electroshock therapy and transorbital lobotomies. This practice started after the turn of the 20th century, when doctors understood homosexuality as a medical issue. Following this, Abraham A. Brill, a student of Sigmund Freud, argued homosexuality was a “psychic manifestation,” and could be treated through psychotherapy. In the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) published in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association officially defined homosexuality as a mental disorder.
Where is this Issue Currently?
According to a 2009 report of the American Psychological Association, the techniques therapists have used to try to change sexual orientation and gender identity include:
- Inducing nausea, vomiting, or paralysis while showing the patient homoerotic images
- Providing electric shocks or having the individual snap an elastic band around the wrist when aroused by same-sex erotic images or thoughts
- Using shame to create aversion to same-sex attractions
- Orgasmic reconditioning
- Satiation (condition of being full to or beyond satisfaction) therapy
This type of therapy can put people at risk for depression, helplessness, hopelessness, shame, social withdrawal, suicidality, substance abuse, stress, self-blame – the list goes on.
The American Psychiatric Association now “opposes any psychiatric treatment such as reparative or conversion therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation.”
Even after the significant strides socially towards equality and acceptance for LGBTQ people, the idea that therapy can change a homosexual orientation or gender identity to what is “right” (heterosexual and cisgender) persists, creating a toxic impact on the lives of thousands of people.
California became the first state to protect LGBTQ youth in 2012 from these dangerous and scientifically discredited efforts. California’s law prohibits therapists who are licensed by the State of California from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of people under 18. In 2013, New Jersey enacted a law that protects minors by prohibiting attempts to change sexual orientation.
Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, Washington, D.C. have since enacted similar protections between 2013-2016. Over the last two years states have been busy passing legislation banning the practice: in 2017 Rhode Island, New Mexico, Nevada, Connecticut passed bills and in 2018 Washington, Delaware , Hawaii, Maryland and New Hampshire passed bills.
What does this Florida Bill Say?
This bill defines the term “conversion therapy” as any practice or treatment performed with the goal of changing a person’s sexual orientation, including, but not limited to, efforts to change behavior, gender identity, or gender expression, or to reduce or eliminate sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward a person of the same gender. FL H0273 aims to ban medical professionals from partaking in conversion therapy with a person younger than 18 years of age.
The bill goes on to stipulate circumstances where the term “conversion therapy” is not the type of counseling occuring:
- Provides support to a person actively undergoing gender transition
- Provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, including sexual orientation-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices, if such counseling is not conducted with the goal of changing the person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The bill then outlines the types of professional counseling professions where this ban applies to medical practitioners, osteopathic practitioners, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, marriage and family therapists and licensed counselors. A licensed professional as described above who engages in or attempts to engage in conversion therapy with a person younger than 18 years of age engages in unprofessional conduct and is subject to disciplinary proceedings by the department and the appropriate regulatory board.
Here is a map of all of the current bills having to do with conversion therapy:
These laws are especially needed to protect minors, who are almost always forced or coerced to undergo conversion therapy. Some parents with good intentions do not realize how these types of practices can harm their children for the rest of their lives. In a time where inclusion and equality are in the news almost every week, legislation like this is important.
Photo by Karollyne Hubert on Unsplash
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