Virginia Senate Kills Bill To Protect Children From Harmful ‘Ex-Gay Therapy’

In a narrow vote, state senators in Virginia voted to allow purveyors of harmful junk science to prey on children. 

This afternoon the Virginia Senate’s Education and Health Committee voted against a bill that would have protected minors from the harmful effects of therapy designed to change gay, lesbian, and bisexual children into heterosexual children. The vote was 8-7, along party lines.

So-called “ex-gay therapy,” “conversion therapy,” or “reparative therapy” is a junk science that has been deemed harmful and possibly dangerous by nearly every major medical association in the U.S., and several more around the world. It is often religion-based.

Before today’s vote, Virginia resident Mathew Shurka told local CBS affiliate WTVR about his ordeal undergoing conversion therapy.

“My father believed that there was a chance that this could just be a phase, maybe this is just something I’m going through,” Shurka said.

He said one therapist prescribed him Viagra to help him have sex with women, another therapist told him to no longer speak with his mother and sister.

“My grades started to fall in school. I went to a straight ‘A’ student to a failing student. I was having depression,” Shurka said, adding that he now has issues with intimacy.

“It is extremely disappointing that our lawmakers cannot come together in support of a bill that would protect Virginia’s LGBT youth,” said James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, in a statement, the Washington Blade reports. “We cannot continue to allow our youth to be put through this so-called ‘treatment’ that can cause depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior. At best, allowing this harmful treatment on our youth is irresponsible, and at worse, it could contribute to the unthinkable.”

“Homosexuality is not a disease or a disorder,” said Parrish. “Prohibiting any health care provider from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with any person under 18 years of age is necessary to protect our youth as they come to terms with who they are.”

MetroWeekly reports that the bill, had it passed though committee, likely would not have survived.

Given Republican control of both the Senate (21-19) and the House of Delegates (67-32-1), the bill’s chances for survival were slim to begin with, particularly given the full-throated backing of conservative groups like the Family Research Council (FRC) and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) for reparative therapy, and support for the idea that people can make a choice to combat or not act same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria.

California, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. all have bans on the harmful therapy.

Last month, the ex-gay advocacy group PFOX leased a billboard alongside a busy Virginia highway with the image above. The claim about twin studies was long ago debunked, and the model in the billboard is actually neither a twin nor heterosexual.

 

Image: Screenshot via NBC12/WWBT