West Virginia gubernatorial candidate Moore Capito sponsored a bill that would bar doctors from treating children with gender dysphoria if the treatments involves detransitioning the child.
Capito hopes to become the next governor of the Mountain State; however, multiple polls have shown that West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has led Capito by double digits.
“The purpose of this article is to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth from conversion therapy, also known as sexual orientation change efforts or reparative therapy,” the bill’s purpose section reads.
Moore’s sponsored bill declares:
(1) Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency, or shortcoming. The major professional associations of mental health practitioners and researchers in the United States have recognized this fact for nearly 40 years.
(2) Conversion therapy has been condemned by every major medical and mental health organization, including the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
(3) Research clearly shows that conversion therapy poses devastating health risks for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender young people including depression, decreased self-esteem, substance abuse, homelessness, and suicidality.
(4) West Virginia has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and in protecting its minors against exposure to serious harms caused by conversion therapy.
In the bill’s “definitions” section, it stipulates that conversion therapy should not apply to a person undergoing transition:
“Conversion therapy” means any practices or treatments that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender. Conversion therapy shall not include counseling that provides assistance to a person undergoing gender transition, or counseling that provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, including sexual-orientation-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices, as long as such counseling does not seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. [Emphasis added]
The bill states, “A mental health provider may not engage in conversion therapy with a person under the age of 18.”
Capito’s bill even calls for punishing mental health professionals who provide conversion therapy for children under 18 who are experiencing gender dysphoria.
The bill reads, “Mental health providers found to have engaged in conversion therapy or found to have referred a current or former client or patient under the age of 18 to an individual for the purpose of engaging in conversion therapy shall be subject to discipline by the licensing entity or disciplinary review board with competent jurisdiction.”
“Moore Capito is play-acting like a conservative to get elected, but the reality is, he is one of the most liberal Republicans in West Virginia and has been an outspoken advocate in support of the radical trans movement,” a pro-Trump activist told Breitbart News. “Advocating to make it a crime for medical professionals to treat young kids with gender dysphoria is something you would expect out of a leftist politician in California, not a supposed Republican in West Virginia.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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