Hawaii and Maine ban conversion therapies

Last week the US states of Hawaii and Maine passed bills to outlaw conversion therapies. Conversion therapy, or “gay cure therapy”, is the practice of taking gay people, usually vulnerable teenagers, and forcing them to be straight. The practice has been not only discredited but proven to be traumatic and mentally harmful.

The Hawaii State Senate banned the practice on April 10th while Maine passed a similar bill on April 12th.

“By passing this legislation, Hawaiian legislators are clearly demonstrating a passion for action to care for LGBTQ youth,” said Sam Briton, head of advocacy and government affairs for The Trevor Project, who is himself a survivor conversion therapy.

“Conversion therapy is a dangerous and discredited practice that I and nearly 700,000 LGBTQ people have survived,” Sam continues. “We are so grateful to Hawaii for protecting our youth from its trauma.

Representative Ryan Fecteau, who spearheaded the bill in Maine and once had a university administrator urge him to go to conversion therapy said: “I know there are young people who are far more vulnerable than I was back then. I want to protect them from the harm that can come from a trusted professional telling them, one way or another, that they are broken, that the core truth of who they are is wrong and even disgusting.”

Hawaii and Maine now join New Jersey, Oregon, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont in outlawing conversion therapies.

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