LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Editor's note: The video in the player is from a previous story in 2022.
A bipartisan bill recently filed seeks to end conversion therapy for minors in Kentucky.
The bill would prohibit mental health professionals from engaging in efforts to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Representative Lisa Willner, a licensed psychologist, filed the bill calling the practice pseudoscientific and dangerous.
“I am honored to carry this bill,” Willner said in a news release. “Every Kentuckian has value, regardless of who they are or who they love. The state has a responsibility to protect young people from the dangerous and discredited practice of ‘conversion therapy,’ and the significant harm that it inflicts. Young people subjected to these practices are at triple the risk of suicidality of those who are not. Many go on to endure self-harm, substance abuse, and other mental health symptoms as well.”
Willner said she has made this bill a top legislative priority.
She believes that with a new legislative environment they have another chance to ban the "dangerous practice".
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