Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, yesterday banned conversion therapy by executive order, the state's Republican-led lawmakers having refused to do so themselves. It will no longer be legal there to send youngsters to "therapists" to "cure" them of undesirable sexual orientations of gender identities—discredited practices which don't work even when the patient consents, but which facilitate a cottage industry of grifters, hucksters and zealots who prey on low-information conservative parents.
Among those in attendance was Zach Meiners, a 34-year-old filmmaker who said he wants young people to be spared the anguish and harm he endured during four years of therapy as a teenager, which caused him "anxiety and depression in ways that I'm still unraveling."
"I can speak firsthand to how devastating it can be to someone's mental health," Meiners said in an interview. "And I consider myself very lucky to be a survivor."
Republican state Rep. Killian Timoney shook Beshear's hand after the signing, and expressed support for the ban. But another GOP lawmaker, state Rep. Josh Calloway, said the governor had defied the will of the legislature, which isn't scheduled to reconvene until January.
The order prohibits using state or federal funds to perform convertion therapy on minors, and allows boards to discipline professionals found to have practiced it.
