Activists in Colorado are trying to get a bill passed that bans gay conversion therapy for minors.
Conversion therapy refers to treatments that aim to change someone’s sexual orientation. Common techniques are prayer, visualization, and group pressure, but have also historically included electric shocks to the genitals, using nausea-inducing drugs while watching gay porn, chemical castration, and lobotomies.
This is the third year that Colorado has attempted to pass such a ban. In 2015 and 2016, the bill received support in the state house but was stopped by the Republican state senate.
California, Oregon, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, and DC are currently alone in banning the practice.
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The Surgeon General in 2001 said there is “no valid scientific evidence” to support that conversion therapy can change a person’s sexuality. In 2015 President Barack Obama supported state laws banning the practice. The American Psychological Association calls the practice “unethical.”
