Gov. Andy Beshear Bans Conversion Therapy in Kentucky
Executive order prohibits taxpayer dollars from being used for conversion therapy, and allows for discipline on therapists who deploy it.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has signed an executive order to ban the use of conversion therapy on minors in Kentucky.
The order makes it illegal to use state or federal funds to subject minors to therapy aimed at forcibly changing their sexual orientation or gender identity.
It also gives licensing boards the authority to take disciplinary action against therapists who — when acting in their official capacity, and not as a religious advisor — practice conversion therapy on minors.
“Kentucky cannot possibly reach its full potential unless it is free from discrimination by or against any citizen — unless all our people feel welcome in our spaces, free from unjust barriers and supported to be themselves,” Beshear said in a statement.
“Conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it can cause significant long-term harm to our kids, including increased rates of suicide and depression. This is about protecting our youth from an inhumane practice that hurts them.”
Conversion therapy, also known as “reparative therapy,” can take a host of different forms, including “aversion therapy,” such as electroshock therapy, the infliction of physical pain, or forced vomiting, shaming, hypnosis, or the more popular “talk therapy,” in which therapists insist that there is something wrong or disordered about the patient or their feelings of same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria.
Therapists may even seek to impose certain moral or religious views on a vulnerable patient or convince them they will face widespread societal rejection unless they “change” how they identify.
Most studies find that conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science. In fact, many major medical and mental health organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Psychiatric Association, have asserted that conversion therapy can cause long-term mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, isolation, and suicidal ideation.
A 2023 study by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ crisis intervention and suicide prevention nonprofit, found that 15% of LGBTQ youth reported being subjected to conversion therapy, with that subgroup being more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide over the past year than individuals who never underwent conversion therapy.
Beshear, an LGBTQ ally, noted that he still hopes Kentucky lawmakers will take action to ban such practices but issued the order due to a lack of action by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature.
Lawmakers previously overrode a veto Beshear issued of a sweeping anti-LGBTQ bill that bars gender-affirming care for minors, prohibits schools from acknowledging student’s gender identities and pronouns, and blocks LGBTQ-related content from being talked about in schools.
“To me, [the issue is] not even about gender or sexuality. It’s about protecting our youth from an inhumane practice that hurts them,” Beshear said during the signing on September 17.
He pushed back on critics who claim that banning conversion therapy infringes on anti-LGBTQ individuals’ free speech rights or forces individuals to adopt beliefs that may conflict with their religious views.
“Today’s action does not force an ideology on anybody. It does not expose anyone to anything in a library or a school,” he said. “It simply stops a so-called therapy that the medical community says is wrong.”
Similar bans on conversion therapy have been passed in at least 23 states and the District of Columbia, sometimes through legislation signed into law defining conversion therapy as unprofessional conduct and sometimes by executive order barring the use of taxpayer dollars to reimburse therapists engaging in the practice on minors.
“Today Gov. Beshear sends a crystal-clear message to all of Kentucky’s LGBTQ kids and their families — you are perfect as you are,” Chris Hartman, the executive director of the Fairness Campaign, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, said in a statement.
Brenda Rosen, the executive director of Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, called conversion therapy a “draconian and deadly practice” that amounts to “nothing more than physical, mental and emotional torture.”
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