The Hawaii House of Representatives has this week fast-tracked a bill which bans efforts to “engage in or attempt to engage in sexual orientation change efforts on a person under 8 years of age,” after the legislation .
The bill was approved by the Democrat-dominated legislature with only two votes against, from Republicans Gene Ward and Bob McDermott.
HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs JoDee Winterhof celebrated the win as a step in the right direction, saying: “So-called ‘conversion therapy’ is nothing short of child abuse with life-threatening consequences for countless LGBTQ youth."
He continued: “It is time Hawaii join the growing number of states who are enacting laws to protect LGBTQ youth from this dangerous and discredited practice. We urge state legislators to swiftly advance SB 270 through conference committee with the strongest, timely protections intact and send it to Governor Ige’s desk.”
The bill, which was originally tabled by Stanley Chang, Rosalyn Baker, and Karl Rhoads, reads: “The American Psychological Association convened a task force on appropriate therapeutic responses to sexual orientation."
It continues: “The task force conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed journal literature on sexual orientation change efforts. The task force concluded that sexual orientation change efforts are unlikely to be successful and involve risk of harm to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, including depression, suicidality, loss of sexual feeling, anxiety, shame, negative self-image, and other negative feelings and behaviours."
“The legislature further finds that children and adolescents who participate in these types of sexual orientation change efforts, which often use fear-based techniques, are given inaccurate scientific information regarding sexual orientation and gender identity and are also at risk of increased self-stigma and psychological distress.”
The bill concludes: “The purpose of this Act is to protect the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, against exposure to serious harms caused by sexual orientation change efforts by regulating the conduct of specific state-licensed persons who provide professional counselling to minors under the age of eighteen and prohibiting these professionals from engaging in, attempting to engage in, or advertising the offering of sexual orientation change efforts on persons under 18 years of age.”
The bill will now face a conference committee for final approval before landing on the desk of Hawaii Governor David Ige.
Conversion therapy has already been banned in the US states of California, Connecticut, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New Mexico, and Rhode Island.
