Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf signs executive order protecting LGBTQ+ individuals from conversion therapy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order Tuesday morning protecting young people from conversion therapy. It is a controversial practice that attempts to change people's sexual orientation.
Wolf says the reason why he had to sign an executive order is because the state legislature has not acted on a bill banning conversion therapy. He also said we are losing young lives while the bill waits.
The executive order was signed in a ceremony in Harrisburg.
The order directs state agencies to discourage conversion therapy and instead directs them to take steps to promote evidence-based proven practices.
Citing research by the Trevor Project, Wolf said 13% of LGBTQ+ youth have been subjected to the practice and 83% of them were under 18 years old.
The governor also said the practice is traumatic and has been rejected by the medical communities because of damaging effects on youth.
"Folks, we have a crisis here and it's unacceptable," Wolf said. "It is unacceptable for all of us. Political attacks on LGBTQ+ communities are not happening in a vacuum. They're happening in our towns and in our schools."
Mathew Shurka knows the effects of conversion therapy. His family sent him to therapy as a teenager and they spent five years trying to convert him from gay to straight.
From that experience, he founded the Born Perfect Organization. They are working to ban conversion therapy across the country.
He applauded Wolf's executive order protecting LGBTQ+ youth from the practice
"It took a lot of years to rebuild who I am, when I actually knew who I was from the very beginning. I think he's going to save a life, or more, today," said Shukra. "It was really some of the most damaging years of my life. Even today as a man in my 30s I still deal with that and what I went through."
"Anytime we use a therapeutic interaction not to help with symptoms or help with depression or anxiety but to try to change who you fundamentally are then it's a weapon, it's no longer a tool." Jasper Liem from the Attic Youth Center said. "The more protections we can put in place, the more young people have the breathing room to develop into healthy adults."
Liem is the executive director of the center which serves LGBTQ+ youth in the Delaware Valley.
There is also a bill in the statehouse that would outright ban conversion therapy, but its been stalled since it was introduced in March of last year.