LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s a controversial practice, called conversion therapy
It's happening right here in the Bluegrass and across the country.
A new coalition is partnering with a Kentucky law maker and survivors of the practice to raise awareness and introduce new legislation.
Zach Meiners, a family member of one of our own WHAS11 team, opens up about his experience with conversion therapy.
It's a neighborhood accepting of the LGBTQ community, but for Zach Meiners, The Highlands equate to a time in his life that was dark, and scary.
He says, " based on where I was at the time, I wanted to change, I needed to change, so that I could be accepted and loved, because there was not a scenario where I saw that I could be loved or accepted as a gay man.
The practice known as conversion therapy or reparative therapy, is the practice of changing individuals sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
State Representative Lisa Willner is a licensed therapist and the former Executive Director of the Kentucky Psychological Association.
She says, "there's nothing in the research to indicate that it’s a successful practice, there's no evidence that people are actually converted."
Adding the lasting effects of conversion therapy may lead to suicidal thoughts, tendencies, anxiety, depression, social withdrawal and many more.
Zach says, "At the essence, its very shame based, tearing down who a person is emotionally, physically, spiritually, only to build them up and shape them up to the person that's more appealing to the person who's doing the conversion therapy at that point."
Tanner Mobley founded the Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky, he's partnered with the State Representative and Zach. Together, they are spreading awareness through their cause.
"The trauma that I've seen survivors go through this the trauma range from a really bizarre and odd way from exorcisms to children as young as 5 years old sit on blocks of ice and look at photos of men holding hands," Mobley said.
Citing the Williams Institute at UCLA and their research showing "800,000 people have gone through conversion therapy in some form in the united states, they estimate that about 80,000 youth ages 13 to 17 will go through these practices by the time they reach adulthood," he said.
Currently only 18 states have legislation banning conversion therapy.
The bill introduced by State Representative Willner wouldn't ban the practice, only ban licensed professionals from taking part in these practices.
To learn more about the coalition and the bill, head to http://banconversiontherapyky.org.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.