KY Houses passes bill canceling Beshear’s restrictions on conversion therapy
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
FRANKFORT — The GOP-controlled Kentucky House approved a bill Wednesday that critics say would protect the controversial practice of conversion therapy, targeting Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order restricting the practice.
Sponsor Rep. David Hale, R-Wellington, touted House Bill 495 as a way to protect counselors, pastors and therapists providing therapy to minors from discriminatory actions by the government, assuring parents can make choices on what kind of therapist a minor sees. The bill specifically protects mental health services seeking to relieve “discomfort or distress caused by an individual’s sex or romantic or sexual attraction.”
Hale successfully added a floor amendment to the legislation that seeks to invalidate Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order issued last year banning the practice. Hale told his fellow lawmakers he believed the order infringed on “parental authority” and First Amendment rights.
The House passed HB 495, with the addition of the floor amendment, on partisan lines by a vote of 77-18.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is among the medical and psychological organizations that have condemned conversion therapy. AACAP has stated conversion therapies “lack scientific credibility and clinical utility” and that there is “evidence that such interventions are harmful.”
The American Psychological Association has stated people who have undergone “sexual orientation change efforts” are significantly more likely to be depressed and suicidal. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.
The minority of Democrats in the chamber echoed concerns expressed by advocates representing psychologists, social workers and the LGBTQ community in opposing the bill. Rep. Sarah Stalker, D-Louisville, said the bill would be detrimental to mental health care for youth, mentioning her time as a foster parent working with LGBTQ minors.
“Many times they came into care, not because there was necessarily abuse or neglect — or sometimes there was. But sometimes it was simply because their family rejected them for who they were, who they are, and they could not stay there,” Stalker said. “This is harmful, and it’s certainly not compassionate.”
McKenna Horsley contributed to this report.
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