Sept. 18 (UPI) — Kentucky on Wednesday joined nearly two dozen states in banning the discredited anti-LGBTQ practice of “conversion therapy” as Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive action into law.
The ban took effect immediately, but some observers say it could face a legal backlash.
“Conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it can cause significant long-term harm to our kids, including increased rates of suicide and depression,” Beshear, a Democrat and son of another former Kentucky governor, said in a statement.
“This is about protecting our youth from an inhumane practice that hurts them,” the two-term Democratic governor said about signing the executive order.
America’s foremost medical and mental health organizations oppose the practice of conversion therapy. Kentucky now joins the roster of 23 other states where conversion therapy is banned for minors, according to the LGBTQ think tank Movement Advancement Project.
“Kentucky cannot possibly reach its full potential unless it is free from discrimination by or against any citizen,” Beshear added, “unless all our people feel welcome in our spaces, free from unjust barriers and supported to be themselves.”
“Conversion therapy,” or “reparative therapy,” is the debunked practice of changing an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, often in disguise as “counseling.”
Beshear’s order makes it illegal to use state or federal funds to provide conversion therapy on minors. And it also empowers Kentucky’s licensing boards the authority to take disciplinary action against licensees found to have practiced conversion therapy on minors.
In Kentucky, 21 percent of LGBTQ+ youth have reported being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy, according to The Trevor Project, one of the world’s foremost LGBTQ suicide prevention organizations.
A Trevor Project official called it an “abusive practice” that “has harmed too many of us, for too long across the commonwealth.”
Kentucky last year banned gender-affirming care for minors, and public school instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity at all grade levels after overriding Beshear’s veto in one of the more restrictive anti-LGBTQ laws in the U.S.
“As a proud queer person who grew up in Kentucky, I am thrilled to see the governor take action to protect LGBTQ+ young people from conversion therapy,” said Tanner Mobley, manager of state advocacy and conversion therapy campaigns.
Lawmakers in Kentucky previously had reversed Beshear’s 2022 veto to ban transgender athletes in women’s sports.
But Beshear’s order signed Wednesday still could be overturned either in court or in the state’s Legislature, which has Republican supermajorities in both the state House and Senate chambers.
State Rep. Josh Calloway pledged to “file legislation on day one to stop this governor from pushing his harmful far-left agenda on struggling kids.”
“Why is @AndyBeshearKY determined to keep vulnerable children confused?” Calloway posted Tuesday on X.
A state senator also was critical of Beshear’s order, saying on social media that it “stands to chill and stigmatize Christian counseling in the midst of a mental health crisis.”
Parents have the right to raise their children in a manner that is based on biblical standards and to help their children receive faith-based counseling,” Kentucky state Sen. Robby Mills posted on X Wednesday.
A Christian-based organization’s leader claimed Beshear’s executive order was “about muzzling Christian counselors and even pastors from helping children struggling with sexual orientation or gender identity issues.”
“We continue to believe that parents and their children should be free to seek counseling that they desire to seek, including faith-based counseling,” David Walls, executive director of the Family Foundation, another Christian conservative organization focused on public policy, told the Lexington Herald Leader.
