Virginia Becomes First Southern State to Ban Conversion Therapy for Children

Virginia has become the first state in the south to ban conversion therapy for minors.

On Tuesday, Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed new legislation banning the treatment, which involves the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change an individual’s sexual orientation, often using spiritual interventions.

“This issue is personal for me, as a pediatric neurologist who has cared for thousands of children,” Northam said in a statement, according to the New York Post. “Conversion therapy is not only based in discriminatory junk-science, it is dangerous and causes lasting harm to our youth. No one should be made to feel wrong for who they are — especially not a child.”

The bill passed through Virginia’s Democrat-majority state legislature last month after being held up for a number of years when Republicans had control of either chamber. The legislation, HB 386, prohibits health care providers and state-licensed counselors from administering conversion therapy to anyone under 18. The ban is set to come into force on July 1.

The American Psychological Association has consistently warned against the detrimental effects of conversion therapy; a practice it describes as involving “counseling and psychotherapy aimed at eliminating or suppressing homosexuality.”

The therapy is intrinsically damaging, the APA says, because it presents the view that the sexual…