The latest advancement in the fight for gay rights isn’t happening in California, New York, or another coastal blue state. Rather, it’s the deeply conservative, religious state of Utah that’s now further enshrining the dignity of gay people into law.
Under the leadership of Republican Gov. Gary Herbert and with the backing of the highly-influential Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon church), the Beehive State will move forward with a ban on “conversion therapy” for minors, prohibiting attempts to change their sexual orientation. This surprising development at the hand of Republicans and church leadership shows how social conservatives can maintain their traditional beliefs while simultaneously embracing compassion and protecting the rights of gay Americans.
Utah is close to banning gay conversion therapy.
This comes after they received backing from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.https://t.co/HIh6mkWty7
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 30, 2019
Herbert will enact the ban through the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, and it will apply to all professionally licensed therapists in the state.
The governor said, “The stories of youth who have endured these so-called therapies are heart rending, and I’m grateful that we have found a way forward that will ban conversion therapy forever in our state.” The conservative Republican deserves credit for his open-minded, compassionate approach and the way he has brought balanced leadership to an issue-area, gay rights and religious liberty, that is so often fraught with partisanship and division.
Notably, the ban will bar medical professionals from participating in now-discredited forms of malpractice and fraud, but it leaves room for religious leaders to have discussions regarding the morality of homosexuality with their parishioners. That strikes the right balance between protecting gay people and respecting religious liberty. The rule does not criminalize the holding and preaching of traditional views — rather, it just prohibits pseudoscientific treatments by medical professionals.
And at this point, there’s no doubt that “conversion therapy” is pseudoscience. Almost every major medical association has condemned the practice, from the American Psychiatric Association to the American Medical Association. So, too, the APA states that there is “no empirical evidence that providing any type of therapy in childhood can alter adult same-sex sexual orientation,” and as noted by the group Equality Utah, research on the topic consistently shows that ineffective attempts to change someone’s sexuality increased rates of depression and suicide attempts.
As I’ve previously written: “Yes, of course parents deserve wide latitude to decide how to raise their kids. But there must be a limit, and we can no longer stand by and watch as well-intentioned parents do irreversible harm to their children. We owe it to struggling gay teenagers in need of real therapy — not psychological abuse shrouded in good intentions.”
The Mormon church’s open-mindedness on this issue is commendable. After all, the church has a long history of association with conversion therapy. According to Time, electroshock conversion therapy was used at the Mormon-owned Brigham Young University during the 1970s, and support for the idea of changing sexual orientation can be traced back to church leaders over decades.
Yet the church has seen ample evidence of both the harm and ineffectiveness of “conversion therapy” and amid Utah’s high suicide rate, chosen compassion over defensiveness and dogma. This hasn’t required abandoning its faith: The church still holds the traditionalist views, as is its right, that homosexuality is a sin and that marriage is only valid between one man and one woman. More social conservatives should follow its lead and allow their personally conservative religious beliefs to coexist with compassionate support for legal protections for gay and transgender people.
The leadership of religious officials and Republicans in Utah shows us that support for gay rights doesn’t demand an embrace of “woke,” liberal, or anti-religious politics. It simply requires an open mind and respect for the dignity of all.
