Attorney General Ford Joins Multistate Fight to Protect Youth from Conversion ‘Therapy’

Carson City, NV — Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. announced that, yesterday, he joined a multistate coalition in an amicus brief defending a Michigan law that prohibits licensed health professionals from practicing conversion “therapy” on minors. Conversion “therapy,” also called sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts, are harmful and ineffective practices that attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Nevada banned conversion ‘therapy’ years ago because it is extraordinarily damaging to children and causes long-term psychological harm to those who have been put through it,” said AG Ford. “These so-called treatments do nothing to actually help children. Rather, they put youth at increased risk for self-harm, up to and including suicide. I am proud to sign on to this brief to stop this damaging practice; protect the rights of states; and defend our nation’s youth.”

Michigan’s law, which prohibits licensed health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on children and youth, has been challenged in a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The amicus brief filed by the 19 states and the District of Columbia supports Michigan’s ban on conversion therapy because it is not a safe or effective treatment for any condition, puts youth at risk of serious harms, including increased risks of suicide and depression, and falls below the standard of care for mental health practitioners.

Nevada is one of over 25 states that bans or restricts conversion therapy. The practice is repudiated by all leading medical and mental professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

The brief outlines why the court should reject the arguments against Michigan’s ban on the practice:

The First Amendment does not shield dangerous and ineffective mental health practices from regulation, nor does it allow licensed providers to operate below a certain standard of care.
Such bans are consistent with states’ long history of establishing and regulating professional standards of care.
Striking down such a ban would likely create profound unintended consequences for states’ authority to regulate professional practices within their borders as they have throughout most of the nation’s history.

Joining AG Ford on the brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Amicus Brief

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