Michigan Bans ‘Conversion Therapy’ for Minors With Gender Dysphoria

U.S. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) speaks at an event in National Harbor, Md., on May 4, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Michigan has become the 22nd U.S. state to ban so-called conversion therapy for people under 18 years of age who suffer from gender dysphoria.

State lawmakers, in their legislation House Bill 4617 define “conversion therapy” as any practice or treatment by a mental health professional that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

This is “including, but not limited to, efforts to change behavior or gender expression or to reduce or eliminate sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward an individual of the same gender.”

The term “conversion therapy” does not include counseling that provides assistance to people who are seeking or undergoing a gender transition.

The companion bill—House Bill 4616—bars a therapist from carrying out “conversion therapy” on a minor with gender dysphoria, with penalties for those who do.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the two measures Wednesday and said in a statement that banning the practice was necessary to making the state a place “where you can be who you are.”

“As a mom of a member of the community and a proud, lifelong ally, I am grateful that we are taking action to make Michigan a more welcoming, inclusive place,” Ms. Whitmer said. “Let’s continue working together to ensure anyone can ‘make it’ in Michigan, expand fundamental freedoms, and fight back against any and all forms of discrimination.”

Michigan’s Senate had approved the two bills in June in a vote of 21-15, with a lone Republican senator siding with Democrats—state Sen. Mark Huizenga (R-Walker). The measure was previously passed by the state House.

Republicans who opposed the ban had said it could interfere with the work of mental health professionals.

Michigan already bans state and federal funds for conversion therapy on minors under an executive directive Ms. Whitmer signed in 2021.

Medical professionals define gender dysphoria as psychological distress experienced by those whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.

According to The Trevor Project, an advocacy group, an estimated 15 percent of minors who suffer from gender dysphoria have reported they have been threatened with or underwent conversion therapy as of 2022.

Gender Dysphoria Advocacy Group Seeks Health Care Free of Politics

Earlier this year, an advocacy group for people with gender dysphoria issued an open letter directed at more than 30 medical organizations, asking them to ensure health care free of influence from politics and activists who shut down those seeking to research gender dysphoria.

“For the safety and well-being of all trans and gender dysphoric people, we need our healthcare, especially our mental healthcare, disentangled from a well-meaning yet misappropriated academic philosophy,” the Gender Dysphoria Alliance (GDA) said in its letter.

“As people living with Gender Dysphoria, we want competent, evidence-based care. This includes mental health care and thorough psychosocial assessment prior to any medicalization, at any age,” the group says in their letter.

“What we are advocating for is not conversion therapy, despite what many trans activists often claim. According to the evolving standard for treating Gender Dysphoria, anything other than immediate access to hormone therapy and surgeries is misconstrued as conversion therapy,” the group added. “This is not only an absurd view of psychosocial evaluations, it’s causing unnecessary harm to young, vulnerable people.”

‘Gender Affirming Care’

At least 20 U.S. states have passed laws that shield minors from transgender surgeries and related procedures. Proponents of the procedures call such procedures “gender-affirming care,” while opponents consider gender dysphoria to be a psychological issue that needs psychological solutions.

In recent years, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have issued statements in support of “gender-affirming care.”

Both groups assert that gender transition procedures can improve a gender dysphoric person’s mental health and result in lower rates of suicide, and that forgoing such care puts the patient at higher risk of anxiety, stress, substance abuse, and suicide.

But the groups’ statements don’t acknowledge that some gender transition procedures render the individual highly unlikely to be able to reproduce or make other changes that are irreversible.

Experts From Around the World Issue Warning Against Transgender Procedures

Earlier in July, 21 clinicians and researchers from nine countries—Finland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Switzerland, South Africa, and the United States—signed a letter on July 13 to say that the “best available evidence” doesn’t support treating gender dysphoria with various transgender procedures, as is being done in the United States.

“Every systematic review of evidence to date, including one published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, has found the evidence for mental-health benefits of hormonal interventions for minors to be of low or very low certainty,” the international experts wrote in their letter published in the Wall Street Journal on July 13.

The risks, however, are significant, they said in their letter. Risks include “sterility, lifelong dependence on medication, and the anguish of regret.”

Because of this, “more and more European countries and international professional organizations now recommend psychotherapy rather than hormones and surgeries as the first line of treatment for gender-dysphoric youth,” they wrote.

The experts also disputed the assertion that gender transition reduces suicides, writing, “There is no reliable evidence to suggest that hormonal transition is an effective suicide-prevention measure.”

“The politicization of transgender healthcare in the U.S. is unfortunate,” they said. “The way to combat it is for medical societies to align their recommendations with the best available evidence—rather than exaggerating the benefits and minimizing the risks.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.