Ted Lieu, survivors of conversion therapy discuss banning practice at roundtable

Congressman Ted Lieu said he thinks conversion therapy needs to be banned at the federal level at a UCLA event Thursday.

The UCLA School of Law hosted a roundtable discussion with survivors of conversion therapy during Pride Month to discuss the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, or H.R.2119. This legislation, which was first proposed by Lieu in 2015, would allow the Federal Trade Commission to recognize for-profit conversion therapy as a fraudulent practice and create a precedent for banning conversion therapy nationally.

Conversion therapy is the practice of attempting to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity through medical practitioners, licensed professionals and religious influences.

Lieu said he finds for-profit conversion therapy practitioners to be dangerous and disingenuous, and he seeks a nationwide ban to supersede slower state-by-state legislation to ban this treatment.

Lieu sponsored a bill to ban conversion therapy practices on minors in 2012 when he was a state senator, which then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law. California was the first state to successfully ban conversion therapy as a result of Lieu’s bill. In total 18 states ban the practice on minors.

Aidan Arasasingham, a second-year global studies student and director of legislative affairs at the Undergraduate Students Association Council, said he thinks although it’s great California set the precedent in 2012, more work still needs to be done.

“Because young people are disproportionately affected, it warrants federal action to protect these students and individuals,” Arasasingham said.

Jocelyn Samuels, executive director of the Williams Institute, which conducts research on LGBTQ issues and public policy, said conversion therapy has been discredited by every major medical association, including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics for being ineffective and harmful.

The Williams Institute released a report in 2018 that estimates 698,000 LGBTQ individuals have undergone conversion therapy in the United States, with approximately 350,000 receiving this treatment as adolescents.

The panel of speakers at Thursday’s event included survivors of conversion therapy who shared their experiences. Mathew Shurka, co-founder of the National Center for Lesbian Rights campaign “Born Perfect: Ending Conversion Therapy,” said his family paid over $35,000 over the course of five years for him to receive the conversion therapy. For three years, he received conversion therapy in Los Angeles.

Kate McCobb, a survivor of conversion therapy, said her therapist attributed her sexual orientation to being a result of childhood abuse, and she became convinced that she was sexually assaulted, even though she never was.

James Guay, another survivor of conversion therapy and a licensed therapist, said a common method in conversion therapy is to find a root cause of their sexual orientation by directing the patient toward realizing any underlying traumas.

“One of the harms (in conversion therapy) is developing false memory syndrome, where they believe something happened to them and they feel the trauma, even if it never occurred,” Guay said.

Some survivors of conversion therapy may also develop harmful symptoms as a result of their experiences, Guay added.

“The shame and rejection of self … leads to problems like anxiety, depression, addiction and suicidal ideation,” he said.

The Trevor Project, which is the largest suicide prevention organization in the U.S. for LGBTQ individuals, found that LGBTQ people who come from a highly rejecting family are eight times more likely to attempt suicide than individuals from an accepting family, said Casey Pick, senior fellow for advocacy and government affairs of The Trevor Project.

“Some of these LGBT youth reach out because their parents are actively threatening to send them to conversion therapy,” Pick said. “Others call us because they’ve tried conversion therapy, it is not working, and feelings of isolation and failure contribute to suicidal thoughts.”

Pick added that others who reach out to The Trevor Project’s landlines or text message support channels are doing so because they’re desperate to escape what seems like torture, or they know someone who has died by suicide as a result of undergoing conversion therapy.

In 2017 it was found over 40% of homeless youth are LGBT, with 46% stating family rejection as a factor behind homelessness, according to a Williams Institute study.

Lieu introduced H.R.2119 in the House of Representatives twice before, in 2015 and 2017. Although it failed then, he said he feels confident it will pass through the House of Representatives now given the new Democratic leadership and majority elected after the 2018 midterm elections.

Jenna Bushnell, communications director for Lieu, said the congressman hopes to elevate the voices of those who have undergone conversion therapy.

“Pride Month isn’t just about celebration, it’s a time we want to highlight fixing these injustices,” Bushnell said.