Conversion therapy is a set of practices used to try and change someone's sexual orientation. It is a form of therapy that has been discredited and refused by medical organizations and mental health organizations for many years. According to The Williams Institute, they estimate:

• 698,000 LGBT adults (ages 18-59) in the U.S. have received conversion therapy, including about 350,000 LGBT adults who were subjected to the practice as adolescents (1).
• 16,000 LGBT youth (ages 13-17) will receive conversion therapy from a licensed health care professional before they reach the age of 18 in the 32 states that currently do not ban the practice (1).
• 10,000 LGBT youth (ages 13-17) live in states that ban conversion therapy and have been protected from receiving conversion therapy from a licensed health care professional before age 18 (1).
• An estimated 57,000 youth (ages 13-17) across all states will receive conversion therapy from religious or spiritual advisors before they reach the age of 18 (1).

(These do not include conversion therapy conducted by religious leaders.)

In many cases, LGBTQIA+ youth are forced into conversion therapy by guardians simply based on their guardian's discriminatory beliefs. Family Equality's , only 21 states have laws that ban conversion therapy for MINORS and only five partially ban conversion therapy for MINORS. The rest of the states have no laws in place governing conversion therapy (2).

According to a study conducted by The Williams Institute, "LGB people who experienced conversion therapy showed greater odds of having suicidal thoughts and attempts compared to LGB people who had not experienced conversion therapy:"

• 92% greater odds of lifetime suicidal ideation (3).
• 75% greater odds of planning to attempt suicide (3).
• 88% greater odds of attempting suicide resulting in no or minor injury (3).

Conversion therapy has been proven time and time again to be ineffective and harmful to the people exposed to it. There needs to be a federal law, if not an executive order, banning conversion therapy. This petition is to push for the Biden administration to continue the fight for equality and the safety of the LGBTQIA+ community by eliminating conversion therapy all together in the United States.

Sources:

1. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/conversion-therapy-and-lgbt-youth/

2. https://www.familyequality.org/resources/conversion-therapy-laws/

3. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgb-suicide-ct-press-release/