US: ex-gay therapy to go?
The Californian state Senate last week approved a bill designed to limit the ability of mental health providers in California to engage in so-called ex-gay or reparative therapy.
If approved by the state’s Assembly and signed by the governor, the bill would make California the first state to ban licensed mental health professionals from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts of any kind for a minor patient, regardless of a parent’s willingness or desire to authorise participation in such programs.
“Being lesbian or gay or bisexual is not a disease or mental disorder for the same reason that being a heterosexual is not a disease or a mental disorder,” the bill’s author Senator Ted Lieu said.
“The medical community is unanimous in stating that homosexuality is not a medical condition.”
In 2007, the American Psychological Association convened a Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. It concluded that efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm.
