New Government Report Finds Ex-Gay Therapy Inappropriate For Minors

LGBT rights groups are praising a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which finds “ex-gay” therapy “inappropriate” for minors.

The report, titled Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth, makes “clear that conversion therapy is not an appropriate therapeutic approach based on the evidence.”

According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the report “confirms that conversion therapy is an inappropriate practice that should not be utilized by mental health practitioners, puts to rest once and for all any remaining claims that sexual orientation or gender identity can or should be changed, and finds that any attempt to do so 'perpetuates outdated views of gender roles and identities as well as the negative stereotype that being a sexual and gender minority or identifying as LGBTQ is an abnormal aspect of human development.'”

In May, freshman Rep. Ted Lieu of California introduced a bill that seeks to ban therapies aimed at altering a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.

In praising the report, Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, called for passage of Lieu's bill.

“Conversion therapy is child abuse, and the Obama Administration has joined our call to ban its practice once and for all,” said Griffin. “This is dangerous junk science that uses fear and shame to tell young people the only way to find love and acceptance is by changing the very nature of who they are. Today’s new health report shows the extensive damage that so-called conversion therapy can cause and why it’s so urgent that we end it in all fifty states.”

Samantha Ames, a staff attorney at NCLR, thanked the Obama administration for producing the report.

“We could not be more grateful to SAMHSA, HHS, and the entire Obama Administration for producing such an in-depth and lifesaving report, and to the APA for inviting us to the table with such high caliber experts to observe the process. From representing LGBTQ youth institutionalized for their identity to advocating for laws protecting them from physical and psychological abuse, NCLR has been leading the fight to end these dangerous and discredited practices for decades. For the first time in history, advocates are seeing our national leaders prioritize what is too often an issue of life and death for LGBTQ youth. But, more importantly, young people are seeing their heroes stand up for them. We thank President Obama for his strong leadership on this issue and look forward to using the groundbreaking findings of this report to bring about a day when every child knows they were #BornPerfect.” said Ames, a reference to the group's campaign to end such therapies.

Four states – New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois and California – and the District of Columbia have banned conversion therapy to minors.