Kentucky's governor has signed an executive order banning the use of "conversion therapy" on minors. The widely discredited practice tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear banned the use of “conversion therapy” on minors in Kentucky on Wednesday, calling his executive order a necessary step to protect children from a widely discredited practice that tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.

The governor took action using his executive powers after efforts to enact a law banning the practice repeatedly failed in the state’s Republican-dominated legislature. Beshear signed the executive order during a statehouse ceremony attended by activists for LGBTQ+ rights.

“Let’s be clear: conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it has been shown to increase rates of suicide and depression,” Beshear said in a statement. “This is about doing what is right and protecting our children. Hate is not who we are as Kentuckians.”

The executive order signed by Beshear bans the practice and makes it illegal to use state or federal funds to provide the therapy on minors. It also gives the state’s board of licensure the authority to take action against anyone found to have practiced conversion therapy on minors and gives the board the authority to bring disciplinary action against anyone found in violation of the order.

  • @Rapidcreek
    29•2 months ago

    Great! I can’t believe this is even a thing that needs to get legally banned.

  • @kitnaht
    -18•2 months ago

    change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.

    I mean, has anyone ever thought that this could also be used in the reverse way?

    I know everyone is like “yaaaay they’re doing something good!” - but every time I see this, I think to myself that someone – somewhere – is going to sue a doctor or therapist over allowing some kid to transition. Because technically, hormones are a ‘therapy’, to help ‘convert’ someone to the other gender.

      • @[email protected]
        28•2 months ago

        Read in good faith, this seems to be a prediction that conservatives will litigate against doctors who perform gender affirming care by leveraging clever wordplay: “converting” from one gender to another using hormones and surgery as “therapy”. It misses the point that “conversion therapy” is a very specific practice removed entirely from the concept of gender-affirming care.

        • @kitnaht
          11•2 months ago

          How anyone took my reply to mean anything different than this is fucking wild on Lemmy. You seem to have understood, but holy crap. Look at how many people thought I was being disparaging…

          Lawyers are NOTORIOUS for using wording to flip the meanings of things, and with the supreme court packed the way it is, this could easily be flipped on its head to discriminate against people.

    • @GlendatheGayWitch
      9•2 months ago

      Hormone therapy is an external change to align with how someone internally identifies. Taking hormones doesn’t change how a person identifies themself.

      Conversion therapy is an attempt at an internal change to align their identity with how they are perceived externally.

      While I could see someone out there attempt to conflate the two, they are fundamentally different. Not to mention the data showing how HRT is helpful and conversion therapy is harmful.

      Frankly, the conversion camps should all be banned due to the wide-spread use of vomit-inducing drugs, electrodes placed on the body, pornography, and shame tactics used on minors. I still can’t see why they can be legal when there are camps that strap minors to a chair, force them to view pornographic images, and shock them when they view people of the same biological sex.

      • @IchNichtenLichtenEnglish
        6•2 months ago

        I still can’t see why they can be legal when there are camps that strap minors to a chair, force them to view pornographic images, and shock them when they view people of the same biological sex.

        Sounds like they got their inspiration from watching A Clockwork Orange and completely failed to understand the movie.

        • @GlendatheGayWitch
          3•2 months ago

          It’s much older than Clockwork Orange. The church condoned all sorts of torture during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, all sorts of evils during the Spanish Inquisition, torture and killing of Native Americans, and I’m sure many other atrocities that can be found across the globe.

          The conversion camps are just the latest iteration of violence against those they consider out of line or outside of the church.

    • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)English
      5•2 months ago

      The “counseling” being referenced above is abuse, not actual therapy. It’s someone brain washing a kid to make them think bad about themselves and “want” to “get better”. It’s everything the asshole fascists claim the drag queen story hour folks are doing, because like everything it’s all projection. The party of “family values” and “protect our kids” that wants to take away kids meals, healthcare, education, and if they don’t “act right” to ship them off to one of these torture camps to “straighten them out”.

      Good to see news like this with all the bad/hate the right is trying to impose on everyone constantly.