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Washington state bans gay conversion therapy for minors
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Washington state bans gay conversion therapy for minors

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a bill on Wednesday that outlaws the use of gay conversion therapy on minors.

What led up to this?

The state Senate passed the House version of SB 5722 in early March, which imposed heavy sanctions on any therapists who attempted to use gay conversion therapy tactics on clients younger than 18 years old.

The bill passed on a 33-16 vote, according to The News Tribune.

Washington is the latest state to ban the controversial therapy, and now stands among places such as California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

What are the details of the governor's signing?

During the Wednesday signing,  KIRO-TV reported that Inslee said,  "We don’t let parents or doctors make decisions to let broken legs be treated in something that ends up losing both your limbs."

"It's unprofessional, it's damaging, it is not scientifically credible, and it violates not only our values, but the mental health of kids with decades of depression ahead of them if they are told to hate themselves," he added.

Danny Cords, a former patient of such therapy, also spoke during Wednesday's bill signing, and likened the process to torture.

"Snapping a rubber band on my wrist, putting a rock in my shoe so I could always be thinking of Christ and not everything else that was going on in my brain because of biology," he explained, and admitted that he'd later tried to commit suicide.

"I tried to end it, I didn't have a point to living, because that's what I had been told since I was 14," he explained.

During the signing, Inslee added, "We know the scars caused by conversion therapy need to end today in the state of Washington."

The new law doesn't cover non-licensed or religious counselors, according to KIRO.

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