Senate Democrats reintroduce bill to outlaw gay ‘cure’ therapy
Senate Democrats have re-introduced a bill which would federally ban the practice of gay ‘conversion’ therapy.
Lawmakers in the senate re-introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act.
It was brought back by Senators Patty Murray of Washington and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
The reintroduction of the bill is part of new efforts to outlaw the practice of gay ‘cure’ or ‘conversion’ therapy across the US.
Senator Murray in a statement said the Trump administration’s attitude to LGBT+ issues is a reason the bill has been introduced.
“On this and so many other issues impacting the LGBTQ community, the Trump Administration has laid out a hateful, damaging agenda to undo hard-won progress, divide our communities, and hurt our friends, neighbours and family members just because of who they are or who they love,” Murray said in a statement.
The bill was introduced last year but died without a hearing.
“So-called ‘conversion therapy’ isn’t therapy at all,” Sen. Booker added in a statement.
“It’s a tortuous, fraudulent practice that has been repeatedly condemned by medical professionals and has no place in our country.”
The 2016 Republican National Convention appeared in its Platform to endorse the use of gay ‘conversion’ therapy, despite that it has been widely condemned.
“We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children,” the platform read.
But the chair of the Republican National Committee has denied that this is the case.
Earlier today it was reported that White House officials are still working on an anti-LGBT religious freedom order which was supposedly spiked earlier this year.
A draft executive order leaked from inside the White House last month that would actively permit religious discrimination against LGBT people.
The leaked order would protect people who discriminate based on “the belief that marriage is or should be recognised as the union of one man and one woman [or that] male and female refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy at birth”.
After the document leaked and sparked immediate protests, White House officials claimed it had been spiked – but there have been several indications it is being worked on, and is being re-drafted to make it less vulnerable to a legal challenge.
Earlier this month, a group of 18 Republican Senators and 51 Congresspeople signed letters urging Trump to sign the executive order.
The Republican Governor of New Mexico last month signed a bill into law which bans gay ‘cure’, or ‘conversion’ therapy for minors.
Conversion therapy has already been banned in California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington DC.
Gay conversion therapy is not illegal in the UK, but any medical professional found practicing it would be struck off by their professional body
