Gov. Andy Beshear Bans Conversion Therapy in Kentucky
metroweekly.com2023 study by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ crisis intervention and suicide prevention nonprofit, found that 15% of LGBTQ youth reported being subjected to conversion therapy, with that subgroup being more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide over the past year than individuals who never underwent conversion therapy.Beshear, an LGBTQ ally, noted that he still hopes Kentucky lawmakers will take action to ban such practices but issued the order due to a lack of action by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature.Lawmakers previously overrode a veto Beshear issued of a sweeping anti-LGBTQ bill that bars gender-affirming care for minors, prohibits schools from acknowledging student’s gender identities and pronouns, and blocks LGBTQ-related content from being talked about in schools.“To me, [the issue is] not even about gender or sexuality.
It’s about protecting our youth from an inhumane practice that hurts them,” Beshear said during the signing on September 17.He pushed back on critics who claim that banning conversion therapy infringes on anti-LGBTQ individuals’ free speech rights or forces individuals to adopt beliefs that may conflict with their religious views.“Today’s action does not force an ideology on anybody.
It does not expose anyone to anything in a library or a school,” he said. “It simply stops a so-called therapy that the medical community says is wrong.”Similar bans on conversion therapy have been passed in at least 23 states and the District of Columbia, sometimes through legislation signed into law defining conversion therapy as unprofessional conduct and sometimes by executive order barring the use of taxpayer dollars to reimburse therapists engaging in the practice on minors.“Today Gov..
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