So-called "Conversion Therapy" is nothing less than child abuse.  All of the nation’s leading professional medical and mental health associations have rejected conversion therapy as unnecessary, ineffective, and dangerous. These groups have cautioned that the practices do not work and have warned patients that they may be harmful. For example, the American Psychological Association “advises parents, guardians, young people, and their families to avoid sexual orientation change efforts that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder and to seek psychotherapy, social support, and educational services that provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support, and reduce rejection of sexual minority youth."

It is unconscionable that we would allow mental health professionals to engage in this harmful practice.  It should be illegal and those who inflict conversion therapy on minors should have their licenses to practice in Virginia revoked.