Los Angeles – In response to today’s announcement from the U.S. Supreme Court that it will not hear Welch v. Brown, a case challenging California’s ban on so-called “conversion therapy” on the grounds that it violates constitutional religious freedom protections, Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur issued the following statement:
“Today’s announcement is good news for thousands of LGBT youth nationwide, especially in states that do not yet ban so-called ‘conversion therapy.’ Homosexuality is not a condition that needs curing. However, we do know that the practice of trying to change sexual orientation not only doesn’t work, but puts vulnerable LGBT young people at risk of depression, substance abuse, homelessness and suicide. It flies in the face of a consensus of respected health organizations – including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other groups – that efforts to change a young person’s sexual orientation are harmful. Even so, thousands of LGBT youth are forced to submit to such programs across the country every year and thousands of ‘therapists’ are more than willing to take their money.”
Equality California sponsored California’s SB 1172, authored by then State Senator Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles), and now is now working to pass his Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 in Congress to ban conversion therapy across the country.