GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Governor Gretchen Whitmer endorsed two bills Wednesday that make it illegal for mental health professionals to perform conversion therapy on minors in the state of Michigan.
Conversion therapy attempts to alter a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation; however, experts call the practice ineffective and traumatic.
FOX 17 went in depth on the issue nearly two years ago and also spoke with a church in Muskegon that still offers conversion therapy.
READ MORE: The ongoing effort to ban conversion therapy in Michigan
Wednesday, we reconnected with some of the people in the story above to hear what they think about Michigan’s new law.
Grand Rapids LGBTQ+ Healthcare Consortium Vice President Doug Booth wants a future where queer people do not feel like the others in their community.
“I think that I speak for a lot of people, this is a great day,” he said. “You’re trying to change something about someone that is not, you’re not able to change. People receiving these messages that who they are, who they truly know themselves to be, are wrong— It’s confusing and, definitely in adolescents and children, it’s a dangerous practice.”
The practice aims to get gay, lesbian or transgender individuals to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through a number of techniques, like hypnosis or electric shocks.
Michigan is the 22nd state to outlaw it.
READ MORE: Governor Whitmer signs legislation banning conversion therapy on minors
“There’s no evidence from a scientific perspective that these so-called conversion therapies have any lasting effect, so they do not change sexual orientation and they do not change gender identity and expression, especially for children and adolescents,” Gary Harper, a professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan, explained.
Harper, who studies mental health among LGBTQ+ kids, adds that research suggests those who do go through conversion therapy experience a higher rate of negative mental and physical health outcomes, including depression and homelessness.
According to The Trevor Project, five percent of Michigan’s queer youth reported subjection to conversion therapy in 2022, while another ten percent were threatened with the possibility.
“I think this is a great win, but it’s really just a start and I feel like we have to do more,” Harper added, noting that the ban only applies to licensed mental health professionals.
That means other people within other organizations, such as a church pastor, can still utilize the practice.
“Unfortunately, yes, there are settings in which these bills will have no effect on. The First Amendment does guarantee the freedom of religion and the practices that are within that. My question to anyone that is apart of a religion or an organization [that] does take part in that is why? Why would you want to be associated with that?”
FOX 17 did reach out to the pastor in Muskegon who practices conversion therapy but did not hear back.
Meanwhile, the ban takes effect in October, and mental health professionals who violate it could face fines or even lose their license.
