Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Health Professions

Multiple Boards

Guidance Document Change: Consistent with the established position of the NASW, the Board considers “conversion therapy” or “sexual orientation change efforts” to be services that have the potential to be a danger to clients, especially minors. Thus, under regulations governing practitioners licensed or registered by the Board, practicing conversion therapy/sexual orientation change efforts with minors could result in a finding of misconduct and disciplinary action against the licensee or registrant.

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5/7/19 1:05 pm

Commenter: Gail Giewont

Please Adopt Proposed Guidance Document Changes

Conversion therapy presumes that homosexuality is aberrant behavior or a choice, when the vast majority of psychological experts assert that it is neither.

This practice should be banned, especially in relation to minors, due to the potential negative consequences for minors who are forced to undergo the procedure, as outlined in this study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30403564

CommentID: 71900