The Seattle bill, sponsored by Seattle council-member Lorena Gonzalez, passed by a unanimous vote, and bans clinical mental health counselors from providing gay “cure” or “conversion” therapy to children.
Prior to the unanimous vote, the bill already possessed the support of Seattle’s mayor, Ed Murray.
The bill also bans any advertisements for conversion therapy and anyone found violating any these terms would be liable for a fine up to $1,000 dollars.
“It’s absolutely offensive to me, that instead of providing these children, who are going through perhaps a moment of confusion … instead of providing them the support that they need, there are people out there who believe it’s appropriate to convince these children that their same-sex orientation is somehow a disease, or an illness, or something that can be cured,” said Gonzalez.
States like California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia, have all passed similar bills that ban the practice.
But, the only other city to ban the practice is Cincinnati, Ohio.
Conversion therapy works to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of an individual. The practice has been widely disproven by large medical entities and the American Psychological Association has stated that conversion therapy can lead to other mental health issues like depression, substance abuse, and even suicide.
TJ is a managing partner of USA-LEADS. USA-LEADS creates comprehensive and informative websites for individuals looking for educational information about the requirements and certifications needed in a given field. He has been in the digital space since 2009 and quickly went from having ZERO knowledge of all things internet to becoming the Director of Web Services at a custom software development company. Prior to entering the space he taught children with learning differences for 9 years.
