Governor Tom Wolf signed Executive Order 2022-2 to protect Pennsylvanians from conversion therapy. “Conversion therapy is a traumatic practice based on junk science that actively harms the people it supposedly seeks to treat,” said Gov. Wolf. “This discriminatory practice is widely rejected by medical and scientific professionals and has been proven to lead to worse mental health outcomes for LGBTQIA+ youth subjected to it. This is about keeping our children safe from bullying and extreme practices that harm them.” Harrisburg, PA – August 16, 2022
Governor Tom Wolf signed Executive Order 2022-2 to protect Pennsylvanians from conversion therapy. “Conversion therapy is a traumatic practice based on junk science that actively harms the people it supposedly seeks to treat,” said Gov. Wolf. “This discriminatory practice is widely rejected by medical and scientific professionals and has been proven to lead to worse mental health outcomes for LGBTQIA+ youth subjected to it. This is about keeping our children safe from bullying and extreme practices that harm them.” Harrisburg, PA – August 16, 2022
Airdate: Thursday, September 8, 2022
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed an executive order last month directing state agencies to discourage the practice of conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy is the discredited and unscientific practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
There are 20 states across the country that have passed laws explicitly prohibiting licensed professionals from engaging in conversion therapy on minors. There are another five states that have executive orders similar to what was issued in Pennsylvania that specifically address state funding.
Casey Pick, senior fellow for advocacy and government affairs with The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ youth; Carmen McKinney, a licensed clinical social worker for Alder Health, which provides affirming mental health care for the LGBTQ community in central Pennsylvania; and Matthew Shurka, who co-founded Born Perfect, a national campaign working to end conversion therapy were on Smart Talk to discuss the importance of the executive order.
When he was 16-years-old, Shirk was put through conversion therapy.
“They try to find out what traumas I went through as a kid, and their theory was that some kind of traumatic experience caused my same sex-attraction and that innately everyone is heterosexual and cis gender,” Shurka said. “I had a pretty good upbringing, so it was harder to define the cause of why I was gay and what their diagnosis was. I’m the third child. The youngest of three. I have two older sisters, a mother that I was very close to and what they describe as a working distant father. And they said, this is the reason why I’m confused about my masculinity and I need to correct the rules in my own home.”
Shurka was then told he could not talk to his sisters and mother for three years and had to learn to “be one of the guys,” he said.
“And they explained that as long as I spend more time with the male figures — father, uncles, male cousins or the boys at school — I will learn how to be more connected to the guys and heal any issues I had in my masculinity,” Shurka said.
Gov. Wolf’s executive order aims to prevent the experiences Shurka went through from happening to other people.
“It specifically encourages the state mental health licensing boards to prohibit conversion therapy by licensed professionals throughout the state,” Pick said. “And also directs that there be additional training and information for state agencies that are working with LGBTQ people so as to actually not only prevent things like conversion therapy, but also try and improve the experience for LGBTQ folks who are making use of state programs where all too often we see disparities in outcomes and some experiences of discrimination.”
Organizations like Adler Health provide affirming care to the LGBTQ community.
“Affirming care is just therapy that affirms who a person is, whether that is related to their sexual orientation or their gender identity,” McKinney said. “It provides them with the space to explore who they are. If that’s why they’re coming to therapy and receive affirming care for the same reasons everyone else comes to therapy: depression, anxiety, relationship issues. It lets people get the same care that everyone else does.”
McKinney added that conversion therapy is not therapy and any mental health professional practicing it is going against their professional code of ethics.
