I pulled out the crumbled ball of newsprint and smoothed it out. The headline “Pass Bill to Restrict Abusive Practice of Conversion Therapy” jumped out at me like some mad neon leopard. My blood began to boil, and I instantly knew I had balled up the article because I can’t believe something this awful and that dated (back to at least 1913) is still not only a topic of discussion, but a viable practice of therapy. Conversion Therapy is some atrocious bullshit. It is the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual using psychological or spiritual interventions. Methods that have been used are bladder washing, rectal massage, castration, castration, electroconvulsive shock, and hypnosis, to name a few.

I am against this practice. No one in my profession and/or any other profession has the right to scar people for life so that they can become someone else’s definition of “normal”. Research shows that lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were more than eight times more likely to report having attempted suicide, more than five times more likely to report high levels of depression, more than three times more likely to use illegal drugs, and more than three times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection. The only upside of my reading this article was it forced me to stop and see if Washington state abolished Conversion Therapy. After some Googling and a few follow up emails and phone calls, I learned the bill was passed March 2018 and went into effect June 2018. Still, Washington state is only one of 11 states that have laws or regulations on the books to prevent conversion therapy. We have 39 states that still need to step up.