Conversion Therapy is Child Abuse and must be banned.
In April 2015, Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said "The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm,"
In 1998, "the American Psychiatric Association has opposed any psychiatric treatment, such as "reparative" or conversion therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or that a patient should change his/her homosexual orientation
APA expanded on that position with a statement in 2013: “The American Psychiatric Association does not believe that same-sex orientation should or needs to be changed, and efforts to do so represent a significant risk of harm by subjecting individuals to forms of treatment which have not been scientifically validated and by undermining self-esteem when sexual orientation fails to change. No credible evidence exists that any mental health intervention can reliably and safely change sexual orientation; nor, from a mental health perspective does sexual orientation need to be changed.”
For transgender individuals, gender-affirming surgery can lead to long-term mental health benefits, according to new research published online today in The American Journal of Psychiatry. The study found that among transgender individuals with gender incongruence, undergoing gender-affirming surgery was significantly associated with a decrease in mental health treatment over time.
Conversion therapy is harmful and should be banned. People who are commenting that want choices in therapy options for their children need to understand that conversion therapy is harmful, has no basis in science, and is based on the false notion that a person's sexual orientation can be changed or that gender dysphoria is a mental illness. Earlier this year, the World Health Organization removed gender dysphoria from their global manual of diagnoses https://www.cbsnews.com/news/world-health-organization-removes-gender-dysphoria-from-list-of-mental-illnesses/
Conversion therapy is child abuse. We must put an end to this harmful practice in Virginia.
