NOTE: Be sure to sign this petition which also requests a public hearing for the accompanying bill in the Michigan Senate Health Policy and Human Services Committee, SB 284.

Michigan House Bill 4515, currently in the Committee on Health Policy of the Michigan House of Representatives, will effectively ban the practice of conversion therapy with minors by mental health professionals upon enactment.

Conversion therapy, also referred to as reparative therapy, is the practice of attempting to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity using professionally discredited practices that can cause great harm, especially among youth who are forced to receive such services by individual practitioners or camps. 

There is no scientific evidence that conversion therapy is effective in changing one’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and rather research supports that it may cause both immediate and lifelong harm, including suicide. 

All primary U.S. associations of mental health professionals publicly oppose the use of conversion therapy, including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Counseling Association, and National Association of Social Workers; including those associations specific to providers of mental health care to minors, including American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine.

As of April 2019, 16 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have banned the use of conversion therapy for minors by mental health professionals, and Michigan has an opportunity to be the next state in the US to ban this harmful practice.

We, the undersigned, urge that the Michigan House Committee on Health Policy hold a public hearing to discuss HB 4515.