Video: Virginia Senate Republicans Kill Bill Banning Discredited, Harmful Gay “Conversion Therapy” for Kids

Check out the video, below, as Virginia Senate Republicans kill Sen. Scott Surovell’s SB 245 (“Prohibits any health care provider or person who performs counseling as part of his training for any profession licensed by a regulatory board of the Department of Health Professions from engaging in conversion therapy with any person under 18 years of age.”) on their usual party-line vote. So…yeah, Virginia Republicans apparently are cool with something opposed by the American Psychiatric Association and other groups of psychologists, social workers, etc. because, among other reasons, “conversion therapy” is “based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that the patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation.” Also see here for a statement by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (“such efforts may encourage family rejection and undermine self-esteem, connectedness and caring, important protective factors against suicidal ideation and attempts. Given that there is no evidence that efforts to alter sexual orientation are effective, beneficial or necessary, and the possibility that they carry the risk of significant harm, such interventions are contraindicated”), the American Academy of Pediatrics (“Therapy directed at specifically changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.”), etc, etc. In short, gay “conversion therapy” is harmful quackery and absolutely should be outlawed for children. But not according to Virginia Republicans, all of whom need to be voted out of office at the next possible opportunity…