DENVER – Colorado Democrats on Tuesday advanced legislation that would prohibit gay conversion therapy for minors, though the bill faces an uphill battle.
Teens usually are targeted for the controversial practice, in which therapists seek to change a person’s sexual orientation. Therapy often is aimed at a person’s gender expressions in an effort to reverse same-sex attractions.
“This conversion therapy has proved damaging to those who undergo it, especially when it is imposed on children,” said Rep. Paul Rosenthal, D-Denver, a gay lawmaker who sponsored the legislation.
The bill would prohibit the therapy with a patient younger than 18 years old.
The Democratic-controlled House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee advanced the measure to the full House on a 7-6 party-line vote. It’s likely that the bill will make it through the House, but it probably won’t make it through the full Legislature.
A similar bill passed the House last year, with only one Republican, Rep. Dan Thurlow of Grand Junction, joining Democrats in supporting the measure. The Republican-controlled Senate later rejected the bill, which it is expected to do again this year.
Critics of the bill say the state should not deny what they believe is valuable therapy. Some who underwent the practice testified that it helped them discover their “real self.”
“Why does the state of Colorado want to make the help that I needed back then so desperately illegal?” asked Robin Goodspeed, who said the therapy – along with religion – helped her convert to heterosexuality.
Rep. Kathleen Conti, R-Littleton, repeatedly asked licensed mental-health professionals who attended the hearing for their thoughts.
“If a young person desiring on their own, without parents, were to come to you and say, ‘I feel like I have these homosexual desires, but I recognize that that is not going to take me down a road where I want to go’ ... would that be considered conversion therapy?” Conti asked.
Several professionals who testified discredited conversion therapy. Some compared the practice to lobotomy treatment, suggesting that it causes “psychological wounds.”
Proponents of the bill – some with tears in their eyes – challenged the notion that being gay requires therapy. Moreover, they said the therapy results in a false shame that can lead to suicide, drug and alcohol abuse and depression.
“I’ve worked tirelessly to rid myself of the shame that nearly robbed me of my life and to help others understand that there is no belief that is worth their lives,” said Brad Allen, who underwent conversion therapy when he was younger and grappled with suicide as a result. “I pray daily that the deadly and discredited practice of conversion therapy would be banned forever so that LGBTQ people can stop hating themselves, shaming themselves and killing themselves in the name of therapy.”
