Michigan continues to make strides when it comes to making all Michiganders feel seen, heard, and accepted through civil rights – including the advancement of the LGBTQ+ community.
Michigan lawmakers gave final approval to legislation banning so-called conversion therapy for minors as Democrats in the state continue to advance a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda in their first months in power.
Essentially, the legislation would prohibit mental health professionals from engaging youth in the unethical practice of trying to convert people who deem themselves as members of the LGBTQ+ community to heterosexuality and linear gender expectations. The Michigan Senate approved the ban on a 21-15 vote — with surprisingly, one Republican siding with Democrats — late Tuesday after the state House previously approved the legislation. It now awaits final approval by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has previously called the therapy a “dangerous practice.”
Conversion therapy is believed to stand on the false premise that LGBTQ+ children are wrong, and they need to be fixed.
“Banning it is just one less thing that LGBTQ children will have to worry about going forward in Michigan,” said Rep. Jason Hoskins, a sponsor of the bills, who was the first LGBTQ+ person of color elected to the Michigan Legislature.
According to the Associated Press, Michigan Democrats have made it a priority to further protect LGBTQ+ people since they took control of all levels of state government this year. In March, lawmakers codified LGBTQ+ protections into the state’s civil rights law, permanently outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the state. Republicans spoke out about the ban of conversion therapy on the Senate floor Tuesday night, with speeches often centering on transgender people. “Hearing a bunch of straight people in the Senate lecture me about the journey of an LGBTQ person is the exact reason we should be banning conversion therapy,” Democratic Sen. Jeremy Moss, the state’s first openly gay state senator, said on the chamber’s floor Tuesday.
Under the bills passed Wednesday, conversion therapy includes any practice or treatment by a mental health professional that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. That does not include counseling that aids people undergoing a gender transition.
If signed by Whitmer, Michigan will become the 22nd state to ban conversion therapy, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a pro-LGBTQ+ rights think tank. In 2021, Whitmer signed an executive directive prohibiting the use of state and federal funds for conversion therapy on minors and to explore what further actions can be taken to protect minors from the practice.
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