An OU professor submitted legislation to partially ban conversion therapy for minors in Oklahoma, something only 15 states and Washington, D.C., have passed.
The text of Oklahoma House Bill 2456, also called the "Youth Mental Health Protection Act," fully outlaws medical and mental health professionals from providing conversion therapy to minors and says any violation of the law by a health care provider is grounds for disciplinary action by the provider's licensing board.
The bill defines conversion therapy as “any practice or treatment that seeks to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, including, but not limited to, any effort to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward persons of the same sex.”
Human relations professor Sage Mauldin started the process to get conversion therapy banned about two years ago, and the final language for the legislation was filed Jan. 17. When session starts Feb. 4, the bill will be introduced and assigned to a House committee to start being discussed.
Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change an individual's sexual orientation using psychological or spiritual interventions, Mauldin said.
“I call (conversion therapy) something that’s tantamount to torture,” Mauldin said.
Mauldin said he first got interested in banning conversion therapy for minors after a conversation with a group of his friends who had been through it when they were younger.
“They shared with me that as they were going through conversion therapy, they felt ashamed, they had diminished self-worth, they experienced loss of faith, they felt dehumanized, they felt suicidal,” Mauldin said.
Mauldin said his friends asked him why conversion therapy had not been banned yet in Oklahoma. He responded that he didn't know, but that it should be. After that, he started working to getting it banned.
In February of last year, Mauldin created an online petition to ask the Oklahoma Legislature to partially ban conversion therapy. In the petition, which currently has about 8,000 signatures, Mauldin details what conversion therapy is and why it should be banned.
Last summer Mauldin started reaching out to legislators to see if any of them would want to sponsor the bill. Mauldin decided to send his final draft to Rep. Jason Dunnington, D-Oklahoma City, who recently wrote a bill to protect housing and employment for LGBTQ people.
“I don’t feel very good about (conversion therapy), because what conversion therapy is, is state-sanctioned child abuse,” Mauldin said, “Keeping that in mind, it baffles me, it concerns me that states aren’t taking action to prohibit any attempts to change a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Dunnington said he thinks the main reason many states have not banned conversion therapy is due to lack of education.
“It’s one of those things that if you never heard about it, or didn’t know anything about it, then it would never be on your radar,” Dunnington said.
Dunnington said he thinks that as states have found out more about the practice and why it’s harmful to children, more and more are taking steps to ban it.
“I’m very hopeful and very optimistic that it will pass because people on both sides of the political aisle do not support child abuse,” Mauldin said.
The OU Gender + Equality Center supports the bill and wants to be available to students for any questions or concerns that they have, Gender + Equality Center coordinator Erin Simpson said in an email.
“The Gender + Equality Center supports the freedom of expression for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities,” Simpson said in the email. “Conversion therapy is currently prohibited in fifteen states and Washington D.C. On behalf of our university community, we will track the progress of the legislation and respond to any questions.”
Mauldin said the way to get any legislation passed is to have a group of people with experience in political advocacy, grassroots activism, and working together with one goal in mind. Mauldin said he feels good about how this bill has progressed and how far it has gotten.
“This is my first piece of legislation, and it’s gotten this far, and that makes me feel very optimistic and hopeful about other causes that I or others can champion in the state,” Mauldin said. “It is very much child abuse, and it’s got to stop, it’s got to be banned, it’s got to be prohibited.”
