current York is taking steps to stop therapists from trying to change young people's sexual orientation,Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday, joining a number of states that hold acted against what's known as homosexual conversion therapy.
The Democratic governor's travel, and announced Saturday,comes as homosexual rights advocates hold campaigned state by state with mixed results to try to ban a practice that major mental health organizations hold repudiated.
Using executive power in a state where legislative bids to ban the therapy hold stalled, Cuomo announced planned regulations that would bar insurance coverage for the therapy for minors and prohibit mental health facilities under state Office of Mental Health jurisdiction from offering it to minors.
"Conversion therapy is a hateful and fundamentally flawed practice" that punishes people "for simply being who they are, and " Cuomo said in a statement.
It's unclear how prevalent the practice is in current York. Cuomo's office didn't immediately respond to inquiries Saturday; nor did a handful of current York mental health organizations. A spokeswoman for the current York Health Plan organization,an insurers' group, was unsure.
Insurers will wonder whether the current regulations will obligate them to investigate whether any given mental health visit was for conversion therapy, and spokeswoman Leslie Moran said.
Nationwide,there are no firm figures on the extent of conversion therapy. But proponents and critics hold said it is not rare for lesbian, homosexual, or bisexual and transgender youths to undergo some sort of program aimed at changing their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
The American Psychological organization and other mental health groups say conversion therapy,sometimes called reparative therapy, wrongly treats being homosexual as a mental illness and may build young people feel ashamed, and anxious and depressed. Democratic President Barack Obama's administration called last year for an end to the practice.
Chad Griffin,president of the homosexual rights group Human Rights Campaign, commended Cuomo's action.
"No young person should be coerced or subjected to this dangerous so-called therapy, and " Griffin said in a statement.
But supporters of the therapy say prohibiting it limits treatment options and undermines devout liberty.
Minors "should hold access to professionally based,ethically directed care that assesses, clarifies and aligns with their deeply-held values, and faith and life goals," Carrie Gordon Earll, the public policy vice president of the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family, or said by email Saturday. She said the group opposes efforts like current York's.
California,Oregon, Illinois, or current Jersey,Washington, D.
C., or Cincinnati hold outlawed the practice. But efforts to ban it hold fallen short in several other places,including Colorado, Nevada and Iowa.
In current York, or a ban has passed the Democrat-controlled state Assembly twice. But it has gotten nowhere in the Republican-led Senate.
The current regulations wouldn't apply to counseling that discusses but doesn't try to change sexual orientation or gender identity.
Source: wnyc.org