California’s new law banning sham therapies aimed at LGBT youth ‘serves as model for the rest of the country’

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force applauds California Gov. Jerry Brown for signing legislation that makes California the first state to protect LGBT minors from ‘reparative’ therapies administered by mental health professionals. The law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2013.

Groups such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Equality California, Gaylesta, Courage Campaign, Lambda Legal, Mental Health America of Northern California, as well as many others including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, urged for passage and enactment of the measure, Senate Bill 1172.

Statement by Rea Carey, executive director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

Governor Jerry Brown nailed it when he said so-called conversion therapies have no basis in science or medicine, and then, with a swipe of his pen, relegated this detrimental practice to the ‘dustbin of quackery.’ In doing so, the governor created history by making California the first state to halt this psychological abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people by deceitful mental health professionals. This couldn’t happen soon enough. Nobody — especially vulnerable children and teens — should be subjected to these sham therapies, which have been roundly denounced and dismissed by leading mental health organizations. Unfortunately though, there are those who continue to place the well-being of LGBT youth in jeopardy, which is why this law is necessary. We thank Gov. Jerry Brown and all those who worked so hard on this legislation. It serves as a model for the rest of the country.

More on the Task Force’s work on this issue

The Task Force’s long history on this issue began in 1973, when the Task Force worked to change the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, and worked with psychiatrist allies to defeat a proposed association-wide referendum to stop the declassification. In addition:

• In 1998, the Task Force Policy Institute co-published Challenging the Ex-Gay Movement, with Equal Partners in Faith and Political Research Associates. That same year, the Policy Institute also released Calculated Compassion: How the Ex-Gay Movement Serves the Right’s Attack on Democracy. These publications attested to the fact that “reparative therapies” are both harmful and do not work.
• In 2005, the Task Force released A report From “Love Won Out: Addressing, Understanding, and Preventing Homosexuality.” It detailed the frames and worldview put forth by “ex-gay” leaders, and examined how to counter their anti-LGBT arguments.
• The Task Force Policy Institute released a 2006 report, Youth in the Crosshairs: The Third Wave of Ex-Gay Activism, which revealed how groups such as Exodus International and Focus on the Family promoted widely discredited theories on the root of homosexuality and recommended “prevention” and “reparative therapies” despite the body of research discrediting these practices.