Title
An Ordinance creating Sections 14-107 to 14-112 of the Code of Ordinances prohibiting mental health professionals from engaging in sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, also known as conversion therapy, to minors and prohibiting public funds from being distributed to any provider that provides conversion therapy to a minor; and amending Section 2-30 of the Code of Ordinances to include enforcement of the prohibition on the use of conversion therapy to a minor in the duties of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission. [Council Office, Maynard]
Body
WHEREAS, the intent of this Ordinance is to protect the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including but not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or questioning youth, from exposure to the serious harms and risks caused by "conversion therapy" or "reparative therapy" by licensed providers, including but not limited to licensed therapists; and
WHEREAS, research demonstrates that sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts can pose critical health risks to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender persons; and
WHEREAS, contemporary science recognizes that being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender is part of the natural spectrum of human identity and is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency, or shortcoming; and the major professional associations of mental health practitioners and researchers in the United States have recognized this fact for nearly 40 years; and
WHEREAS, in 2009, the American Psychological Association's Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation concluded that efforts to change sexual orientation and gender identity are unlikely to produce anticipated outcomes and can pose unintended harmful side effects to participants, such as a sense of having wasted time and resources, confusion, shame, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, loss of faith, decreased self-esteem and authenticity towards ...
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