SB 934: Sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts.

SECTION 1.

The Legislature finds and declares:

(a) The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Counseling Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American School Counselor Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and every other mainstream mental health and medical organization in the United States have determined that efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, which is a person’s internal understanding of their gender, are harmful and ineffective.

(b) In 2009, the American Psychological Association Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed research and concluded that sexual orientation change efforts are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm, including depression, suicidality, and anxiety.

(c) In 2021, the American Psychological Association (APA) adopted resolutions on sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) and gender identity change efforts (GICE) concluding that SOCE and GICE are harmful and ineffective and calling for their elimination. The APA stated that “consistent with the APA definition of evidence-based practice, the APA affirms that scientific evidence and clinical experience indicate that SOCE put individuals at significant risk of harm.” The APA also stated that “consistent with the APA definition of evidence-based practice, the APA affirms that scientific evidence and clinical experience indicate that GICE put individuals at significant risk of harm.”

(d) The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that “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.”

(e) In 2023, the United States Joint Statement (USJS) Against Conversion Efforts was ratified. The USJS is a consensus statement of 28 professional medical and mental health associations. Signatories to the USJS include the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Nursing, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, American College of Physicians, American Counseling Association, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychoanalytic Association, American Psychological Association, Clinical Social Work Association, and National Association of Social Workers, among others. The USJS states that “[d]ecades of research findings and clinical expertise have revealed that variations in sexual orientation and gender identity are a normal part of human development across race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status” and that “[r]esearch and experience shared by scholars, clinicians, and patients have shown conversion efforts have not changed sexual orientation or gender identity or expression and are harmful.”

(f) The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association recognize that being transgender is not a disorder and that efforts to change an individual’s gender identity are harmful.

(g) The scientific and clinical consensus establishes that sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts pose serious risks of harm to patients, including depression, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, shame, social withdrawal, suicidality, substance abuse, stress, self-blame, decreased self-esteem, feelings of anger and betrayal, loss of religious faith, alienation from family, problems in sexual and emotional intimacy, sexual dysfunction, high-risk sexual behaviors, feelings of being dehumanized, and a sense of having wasted time and resources.

(h) The psychological harms caused by sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts often do not manifest until years or decades after the conduct occurred. Survivors frequently do not recognize their experience as conversion therapy, initially fail to recognize such treatment as harmful, fail to connect their psychological injuries to the treatment until much later in life, or are deterred from coming forward by shame instilled by the treatment itself.

SEC. 5.

The provisions of this act are severable. If any provision of this act or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.