The Washington Post reports:
Gov. Ralph Northam has signed a bill banning conversion therapy for minors, the first LGBT rights measure to reach the Democrat’s desk this year. Virginia will become the 20th state — and the first in the South — to outlaw the therapy, a widely discredited practice that purports to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Critics say it is traumatic for patients and has led to suicides.
The ban, which takes effect July 1, will not apply to adults who choose the therapy for themselves. “This issue is personal for me, as a pediatric neurologist who has cared for thousands of children,” Northam said in a statement. “Conversion therapy is not only based in discriminatory junk-science, it is dangerous and causes lasting harm to our youth. No one should be made to feel wrong for who they are — especially not a child. I’m proud to sign this ban into law.”
Virginia governor signs a bill banning conversion therapy for minors into law https://t.co/YdyvmzlfPH pic.twitter.com/aHXxpt8Uui
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 4, 2020
Virginia became the first Southern state to ban licensed medical professionals from practicing conversion therapy on minors https://t.co/9uNLh6SfZD
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 4, 2020