Conversion Therapy Bans

Abstract

Recent work examines how US state governments are adopting policies that trample individual rights (Grumbach 2022). Yet, the proliferation of conversion therapy bans, which criminalize attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors, represent an important counterpoint. Nearly 700,000 people in the US have undergone conversion therapy and approximately 16,000 LGBTQ+ youth will undergo conversion therapy before they turn 18 (Mallory et al. 2018). Although most practitioners frame the process as innocuous, people who undergo conversion therapy are significantly more likely to think about (92 percent), plan (75 percent) and attempt suicide (88 percent) over their lifetime (Blosnich et al. 2020). Banning conversion therapy demonstrates the states’ prerogative to protect the rights of individuals, ensuring their autonomy. Using a novel dataset recording the adoption of conversion therapy bans in 22 US states, I analyze how state policymaking can protect against the erosion of individual identity and bodily control. In contrast to previous research, I find that partisanship has no significant effect on the presence of conversion therapy bans at the state level.