Jim Rosica
State Sen. Jeff Clemens on Friday filed a Senate companion bill (SB 258) to a piece of House legislation that aims to outlaw sexual conversion therapy on patients under 18.
Conversion therapy generally refers to a course of treatment, including talk therapy, to change one’s orientation from homosexual to heterosexual.
Last Thursday, state Rep. David Richardson, a Miami Beach Democrat, filed his bill (HB 137). Richardson is Florida’s only openly gay lawmaker.
Clemens is a Lake Worth Democrat. He was not available by telephone Friday morning.
The legislation would forbid anyone who does “professional counseling” to use conversion therapy on minors.
Both bills cover medical practitioners, osteopathic practitioners, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and mental health counselors.
Anyone who breaks the proposed law could be subject to discipline by the state board that regulates the practitioner’s corresponding profession.
As reported previously, similar laws have been enacted in California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and the District of Columbia, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which bills itself as an independent LGBT think tank.
Conversion therapy has been contentious in recent years, decried by gay advocates as harmful brainwashing, especially when used on teens.
Proponents say those who want to switch their sexual orientation should be allowed to try, and some conversion therapy patients have said it works and they’re happier being straight.
But the American Psychological Association has concluded “there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.”
