White House Says It Supports Efforts To Ban Gay Conversion Therapy
The White House said on Wednesday that it supports efforts to ban therapies aimed at converting gay and transgender minors into heterosexuals.
"Often, this practice is used on minors, who lack the legal authority to make their own medical and mental health decisions," White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said in a statement. "We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer youth."
The White House released that statement in response to a petition calling for a ban that gathered more than 120,000 signatures. The petition was for its part sparked by the suicide of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, who wrote on a Tumblr post that her parents had forced her to go to conversion therapy.
Jarrett wrote that science has overwhelmingly demonstrated that conversion therapy hurts gay and transgender minors and that the practice is "neither medically nor ethically appropriate."
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/08/398411824/white-house-says-it-supports-efforts-to-ban-gay-conversion-therapy