And this September, California became the first state in the nation to outlaw "conversion therapy" – basically, trying to make gay people straight – for children and teenagers. Jerry Brown, the governor, calls ex-gay therapy "quackery", but it's actually worse than that. The American Psychological Association, in a 2009 report, found that not only does conversion therapy have no effect on a patient's sexual orientation, but it can also lead to depression, if not suicide. And while it's harmful enough for adults, for more vulnerable teenagers the inculcation of inferiority and sinfulness that conversion therapy relies on can have lifelong effects.
Of all these victories, the prohibition of ex-gay therapy may be the sweetest. California's new law is quite literally a life-saver, and several other states, notably New Jersey, are working on similar statutes. And at a moment when the mainstream equality movement seems to care only about a privileged subset of gays, California has stepped in to protect those who are truly powerless.
-Jason Farago, The Guardian
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