Skip to content

Affirmation Remains Committed to Conversion Therapy Ban until Every Youth Is Safe

Utah Capitol LGBTQ News

March 11, 2019

In November 2018, Affirmation leadership met with Troy Williams, Executive Director of Equality Utah, to discuss a bill intended for the upcoming 2019 Utah Legislative session. This bill proposed banning conversion therapy practices on youth in the state. Affirmation then joined Equality Utah and numerous other LGBTQ advocacy groups in signing a commitment in support of legislation to forever halt this harmful practice.

We have now seen this proposed conversion therapy ban, HB399, severely amended and made ineffective by those who yet fail to grasp its importance in protecting our youth and their families. This ultimately prevented the progress of the bill in this legislative season.

Affirmation expresses disappointment at this turn of events. We remain deeply concerned for our LGBTQ youth vulnerable to this practice. #STILLHAPPENING.

Yet we feel optimistic looking forward.

Through the efforts of Equality Utah and many other organizations and individuals, this critical topic has finally received deserved attention. Important progress has been made both in the Utah Legislature and within the Governors’ office, including the Governor’s written apology and commitment “to make sure we develop good policy that protects our LGBTQ youth . . . and end abusive therapeutic practices in Utah.”

Affirmation is encouraged by the public’s increased understanding of the harm of conversion therapy. We remain hopeful that the education and support seen during this legislative session successfully propels the ban forward to its intended, lifesaving conclusion. We firmly believe that this effort must include both sexual orientation and gender identity because every LGBTQ life is way too important to be erased by legislative amendment.

As an organization, we see ourselves as highly motivated and patient educators in this cause to open minds and to change hearts. We will continue to work for the safety of our youth and their families. We affirm that LGBTQ youth and adults are not broken and do not need to be “changed” or “fixed” in any way from the beautiful souls that they are.

In conjunction with our 2019 International Conference, June 21-23 in Provo, Affirmation leadership will seek a meeting with the Governor and other legislative leaders to lay the groundwork for further legislative consideration.

Affirmation will not accept the status quo. We will not give up. We remain fully committed to the elimination of all harmful practices against our community, and will always be until every person is safe.

2 Comments

  1. Earl E Green on March 17, 2019 at 5:04 PM

    I am a little bit surprised that the conversion therapy ban is not expanded to include adults as well. In 2006 as a 62 year old adult, my bishop at the time in Clinton, Utah suggested that I undergo as he called it “Repairative Therapy.” To me, it was Conversion Therapy. It was then, just as it was when my Stake President in North Ogden insisted I participate in it in 1999 when he excommunicated me for being a homosexual. As late as 2013, my current Stake President in Clinton, Utah at the time said that I should never have my Temple Blessings or Priesthood restored in mortality, especially if I was never going to get back with my wife of whom I have been legally separated for going on 17 years.

  2. BLC on April 11, 2019 at 2:00 PM

    Earl, thank you for your reply and relating your personal experience. Banning so-called conversion therapies has its basis in two things: that the notion itself is based in misunderstanding and bias, and that it can be forced on children where it is permitted.

    Adults are free to pursue such therapies, just as they are free to believe all kinds of nonsense. I hadn’t thought of the coercive aspects as applied to adults, however, and an institutional context such as the church really ups the ante. I’m not sure about an outright ban on conversion therapy for consenting adults, but I do think that church leaders at any level should be instructed to stay strictly away from it.

Leave a Comment





Scroll To Top