A needed ban on conversion therapy for kids

Gov. Tim Walz issued his 25th executive order of 2021 (his 171st overall) to bar the practice of conversion therapy on children in Minnesota.

Conversion therapy, sometimes called reparative therapy, seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people in service of a worldview that says everyone can and should be made straight.

Conversion therapy bans have been challenged in court in other jurisdictions, often on religious grounds and based on arguments that such bans infringe on First Amendment right to freedom of speech. It's likely Walz's recent action will see a similar challenge.

There are dozens of reasons why conversion therapy should never be committed against a minor. First among them: Study after study has shown it to be extremely harmful, even life-threatening.

Second: Conversion therapy has little concrete record of success. The most generous view of its efficacy suggests it rarely "works." And often the definition of success includes not turning a gay person with healthy romantic relationships into a heterosexual person with healthy romantic relationships, but into a person with no healthy romantic relationships. Strange definition of "success."

The price of this ineffective, harmful so-called therapy can be lives.

Medical professionals are vocal about their opposition to conversion therapy. In response to the governor's executive order, the Minnesota Medical Association President-elect Dr. Randy Rice issued a statement calling conversion therapy "not therapy at all. It leads to poor self-esteem, self-harm, guilt, and anxiety, all while being devoid of any scientific basis."

Protecting children from known systemic health hazards to their well-being is a time-honored, legitimate role of government. Minnesota is now one of 24 states that limits mental health professionals from seeking to change sexual orientation. Eleven Minnesota cities have local bans, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Duluth.

The Minnesota Legislature had the opportunity in 2019 to head off the executive order, but let the pitch go by amid Republican opposition. Minneapolis Sen. Scott Dibble, a Democrat who is gay, told PBS that "more than a handful of Republican senators" told him they would change their votes if they had to opportunity to do it again.

Those assurances may be needed. The governor's executive order is easily reversed by a successor; a law passed by the Legislature is more complicated to undo. It should be taken up in the 2022 legislative session, but will likely see continued opposition from Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, of East Gull Lake.

The issue must be intensely personal for him. His adult child Genna Gazelka, who identifies as bi-gender and uses they/them pronouns, was vocal during the 2019 legislative debate about their time as a teenager in therapy with Marcus Bachmann, the husband of former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. "This is harassment and it is tantamount to what could be said of torture or sexual torture," Genna Gazelka said of conversion therapy in 2019.

Sen. Gazelka said at the time that Genna was in therapy for healing, not conversion, and he was seeking a legislative balance that would reduce harm while allowing therapy for unwanted sexual attraction to those who want it.