Conversion Therapy Is Banned in Michigan. A Group of Catholic Therapists Just Sued for the Right to Perform the Discredited Practice.
Michigan LGBTQ+ orgs respond: Ban is 'life-saving'
Equating conversion therapy with “torture,” 19 LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ-affirming organizations in Michigan have issued a statement in response to a federal complaint filed in Michigan Western District on July 12 against House Bill 4616, which seeks to ban the discredited practice.
The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of HB 4616, signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in July 2023. The suit argues that the new law impedes the free speech and free exercise rights of a group of Catholic therapists. The law, the suit reads, attempts to “control counselors’ speech” and “harms vulnerable children by depriving them of the compassionate counseling they so desperately need.”
The law “goes out of its way to say that ‘counseling that provides assistance to an individual undergoing a gender transition’ is permitted, while counseling that helps an individual accept her biological sex is not,” the suit reads.
The conservative Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is behind the lawsuit. Becket Fund successfully represented Michigan’s St. Vincent Catholic Charities in a case focused on whether religious foster care and adoption agencies can decline to work with same-sex couples.
The suit names several defendants, including Gov. Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Elizabeth Hertel, who serves as director of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Michigan boards of counseling, social workers and psychology and leaders at the state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Ultimately, the suit asks the court to find that the law violates constitutional rights to free speech, free exercise and due process and seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing the law.
Organizations including Equality Michigan, Affirmations, Corktown Health, Metropolitan Community Church - Detroit, MiGen, Ruth Ellis Center and Stand with Trans signed on to the statement, issued on July 13. “House Bill 4616 is saving young lives in Michigan,” the statement reads, “and any attempts to undermine and undercut this law will serve only to subject LGBTQ+ people to serious psychological and physical harm.”
“House Bill 4616 is a suicide prevention bill, period. Protecting LGBTQ young people from conversion ‘therapy’ in Michigan is literally life-saving,” said Erin Knott, Equality Michigan Executive Director, in the statement. “Michigan’s LGBTQ youth should be free from needless attacks and torture, and deserve to live in a state where they can be healthy, safe, and reach their full potential.”
Conversion therapy is “torturous,” the statement continues, citing research published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2020, which found that youth who had experienced conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt in the prior year than youth who were not. Additional analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics found that conversion therapy participants were more likely to experience serious psychological distress or depression and were more likely to engage in illicit drug use. Most alarmingly, they were more likely to attempt and die from suicide.
Every prominent professional medical and mental health association in America has condemned the practice, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association. Bill sponsor Rep. Felicia Brabec, who represents Michigan’s 33rd District, said in the statement, “As a clinical psychologist, I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous this practice is and that to call it ‘therapy’ is misleading and treacherous.”
The statement concludes:
“As organizations that directly serve and support LGBTQ+ Michiganders, we cherish and champion our freedoms, including that of speech and expression. But it’s clear to us that torturing children, which is exactly what conversion “therapy” is, is not a fundamental right.
The intent of the law is to protect youth who are vulnerable to harm or violence, whether that occurs in a medical or commercial context. The law does not prevent LGBTQ+ people from seeking legitimate medical support or spiritual support from their faith leader in the exploration of their sexual orientation or gender identity. We changed the law in Michigan. Those who oppose it are trying to change the child. There is no cure for one's sexual orientation or gender identity because neither of those is an illness.
To the invaluable LGBTQ+ young people in our State, and to all the survivors of conversion “therapy,” we want you to know that there is a strong coalition of organizations and elected officials, as well as a majority of residents in Michigan, that hear you, see you, and believe you are deserving of the freedom to be who you are and love who you love. Equality Michigan and our undersigned partners will never stop fighting for you and your families.”
Read More
The Midwestern Spotlight: What Is It Really Like to Be a Queer Musician in Michigan?
With the recent rise of its princess, Chappell Roan, the Midwest's music scene has gained newfound attention. Roan’s journey to the top wasn’t [...]
Attend Community Events for Transgender Day of Visibility
Get set to commemorate International Transgender Day of Visibility, founded by Michigander Rachel Crandall Crocker. On March 28, Five15 in Royal Oak will [...]
Michigan House Republicans Introduce Bill to Halt Gender-Affirming Surgeries and Care for Minors
More than a dozen Republican lawmakers in Michigan have signed onto a bill to bar physicians from performing gender-affirming care for transitioning minor [...]
These 8 Michigan Democrats Face Backlash After Supporting Anti-Transgender Sports Resolution
A controversial resolution urging restrictions on transgender student athletes in Michigan has sparked outrage among LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in the state — [...]
Out Gay Rep. Jason Morgan Aims to Repeal Outdated Michigan Ban on Same-Sex Marriage Amid Supreme Court Concerns
One week after one of his House colleagues introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its landmark ruling ending bans on [...]
Recovering Forgotten Trans History: Storyteller S. Bear Bergman Brings ‘The First Jew in Canada’ to Ann Arbor Church
S. Bear Bergman has been a self-described "queer pain in the ass" since adolescence, when he helped found the first gay-straight alliance in the country in 1990 [...]
