California Might Make Conversion Therapy Consumer Fraud

[DonViejo]

LGBT groups have argued that conversion therapy is a harmful practice, and now in California a new bill argues it doesn’t do what it promises and so is defrauding the consumer.

SAMANTHA ALLEN
08.29.18 4:44 AM ET

Conversion therapy does not do what it claims to do.

Several major medical organizations—such as the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics—oppose the practice of trying to change someone’s LGBT identity on the grounds that it is not only harmful but ineffective.

Yet this medically condemned practice remains legal in the majority of U.S. states.

Those that have banned it have mostly done so by passing laws that only affect licensed professionals who offer the debunked therapy to minors. That leaves plenty of wiggle room for practitioners of conversion therapy to continue peddling their product to adults—or even to minors, so long as the provider is unlicensed.

But LGBT advocates say there’s another possible solution to this problem that has been gaining momentum for years: stopping conversion therapy by arguing—through both legislation and litigation—that promises to change a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity are technically a form of consumer fraud.

“There’s two different legal ways to address the harm caused by conversion therapy,” National Center for Lesbian Rights legal director Shannon Minter told The Daily Beast.

“One is to pass laws saying that state-licensed mental health professionals cannot subject minors to conversion therapy. The other legal remedy is that anytime anybody pays money for conversion therapy, they’re being defrauded. That’s already true.”

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