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Colorado on Friday became the 18th state to ban “conversion therapy” for minors, a discredited practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender expression.
Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, who is gay, signed the bill into law a day before the start of Pride Month for the L.G.B.T. community. He also signed a bill making it easier for transgender people to change the gender listed on state-issued documents.
On Wednesday, Maine outlawed conversion therapy, and New York and Massachusetts have also enacted laws banning the practice this year.
Conversion therapy has been around for more than a century. Its most common technique is talk therapy, although it is not uncommon for practitioners to use aversion treatment such as inducing nausea, vomiting or paralysis when a person is aroused by same-sex images, according to a 2018 study by the Williams Institute of the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. In some cases, electric shock has been used, the study said.
The law in Colorado specifically prohibits a licensed physician from engaging in conversion therapy with a minor.
“Colorado has joined a growing list of states that have banned so-called conversion therapy,” Mr. Polis said on Twitter. He called it a torturous practice “that has long been widely-discredited by medical and mental health professionals.”
One Colorado, a group that focuses on achieving equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Colorado residents, was pleased with the governor’s actions. Its deputy director, Sheena Kadi, said there were several active conversion therapy practitioners in Colorado.
“What this bill does is states that those who are licensed medical and mental health professionals cannot participate in that therapy,” she said on Saturday. “What this does is gives assurance to these families that are looking for that professional guidance that they will not be misled by a licensed medical or mental health professional that this is a credible practice.”
In cases in which medical professionals are also religious leaders, Ms. Kadi said, they must choose which role they are acting in.
“If you are a religious leader that also holds a license by the state of Colorado, you cannot offer these services as a licensed medical and mental health professional,” she said.
Ms. Kadi said the bills have been legislative priorities over the last five years and celebrated their passage but added that “the work is far from done.”
“There’s still a gap,” she said. “While we may have those legal protections in the day-to-day lives of folks, they are still experiencing discrimination.”
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