The White House expressed its support for banning therapy that attempts to change homosexual, transgender, and queer youth to a heterosexual orientation. A petition to enact Leelah's Law, named after the teenager who committed suicide after being in conversion therapy, reached over 120,000 signatures.
The petition was created back in January, and the Obama administration officially responded to the petition after it reached 100,000 signatures. Valerie Jarrett, spokesperson for the White House, wrote a response to the petition and quoted President Barack Obama's own support for the LGBTQ community.
"'Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let's say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he's held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it's time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us -- on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build'" wrote the President.
Opponents of LGBTQ conversion therapies state that the therapies are harmful to the youth that take it. "The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm," stated Jarrett.
Currently, 21 states including California and New Jersey have legislation that bans conversion therapy. Those who support Leelah's Law state that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and therefore should not be treated by therapy.
Conservative therapeutic centers, such as the NARTH Institute that provides conversion therapy, argue that homosexuality is caused in large part by psychological influences such as family and peers.
"NARTH agrees with the American Psychological Association that "biological, psychological and social factors' shape sexual identity at an early age for most people," states NARTH on their website.
"But the difference is one of emphasis. We place more emphasis on the psychological (family, peer and social) influences, while the American Psychological Association emphasizes biological influences--and has shown no interest in (indeed, a hostility toward) investigating those same psychological and social influences."
