LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville Metro Council has banned conversion therapy from being performed on the city's minors.
The pseudoscientific intervention, through which therapists try to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through shaming, emotionally traumatic or physically painful methods, increases youth suicide.
State lawmakers are considering a similar move against the therapy, which is already banned in 20 states.
Councilman Bill Hollander, D-9, had filed the proposal "to protect LGBTQ minors from the dangerous and deadly practice." Council members Jessica Green, D-1; Nicole George, D-21; and Brandon Coan, D-8, co-sponsored the ordinance.
Major U.S. health organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association, have called for an end to the practice. The AMA said evidence does not support conversion therapy’s effectiveness but that it may cause "significant psychological distress," including lowered self-esteem, anxiety and depression.
The Fairness Campaign, an organization that fights for equal rights for lesbian gay, bisexual, and transgender people, lauded the city for becoming the second in Kentucky, after Covington, to ban conversion therapy.
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