Michigan lawmakers gave final approval to legislation that would ban so-called conversion therapy for minors, joining other blue states to advance protections for the LGBT community.
The approach includes an array of verbal counseling methods by which consenting clients are helped to bring their sexual feelings and identity in line with their biological sex.
The state Senate approved the ban on a 21-15 vote on June 27 after the state House previously approved the legislation. The bills now await final approval by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has previously called the therapy “ineffectual,” “dangerous,” and “harmful.”
If Whitmer signs the bills, Michigan will become the 22nd state to ban conversion therapy, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a pro-LGBT rights think tank. The bills would take effect 90 days after the governor signs them into law.
In written testimony offered to the Michigan legislature on May 17, Dr. Laura Haynes, a psychologist and board member of the International Federation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice, said: “Under a therapy ban, therapists will feel themselves at risk if they inform clients of this therapy option or provide it. Yet therapists are ethically required to inform patients of treatment options.”
Two previous attempts by Democrats to pass conversion therapy bans were thwarted by the then GOP-controlled Michigan House and Senate. Republicans lost the majority in both houses in the 2022 election. A 2019 bill would have banned conversion therapy for adults and minors, and a 2021 bill sought to ban the practice only for minors. Neither bill advanced to a hearing.
On June 14, 2021, Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order prohibiting the use of state and federal funds for conversion therapy on minors.
The order exempts from the public funding ban “any practice or treatment that assists an individual seeking to undergo a gender transition or an individual who is in the process of undergoing a gender transition.”
LGBT rights have become a prominent issue in state legislatures nationwide as Democratic and Republican lawmakers look to push opposing bills that advance or curtail protections.
In March, Michigan lawmakers codified LGBT protections into the state’s civil rights law, permanently outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state.
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs recently issued an executive order prohibiting state resources from supporting conversion therapy on minors. And in Michigan–where Democrats now control the governorship and both legislative chambers for the first time in roughly four decades–Whitmer signed a bill earlier this year that expanded the state’s Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination against “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.”
