NJ committee advances ban on 'conversion therapy'

GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The Senate's Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens committee voted Monday to advance a bill to ban licensed therapists from trying to make gay New Jersey minors heterosexual after a debate about the practice and how much say the state should have in parents' decisions on how to raise their children.

After passing 7-1 with two abstentions, the bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration, though some senators said the language of the bill needed to be clarified.

The idea of what's sometimes called "conversion therapy" is an old one, but has increasingly drawn criticism for its methods. Last year, four gay men sued a Jersey City group for fraud, saying its program included making them strip naked and attack effigies of their mothers with baseball bats.

Last year California became the first state to pass a law banning the practice also called "reparative therapy" but a federal judge in December halted implementation of the law pending arguments over the law's constitutionality.

New Jersey lawmakers heard horror stories about the programs, including from Brielle Goldani of Toms River.

She said that in 1997, at 14, she was sent to a camp in Ohio to become straight.

Goldani told lawmakers she was given electric shocks and drugs to induce vomiting as part of the treatment.

"This is nothing more than legalized child abuse," said Goldani, of Toms River.

Lawmakers heard of suicides of young people who had been in such programs and that many associations of professional therapists say they are not valid ways to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, as well as those questioning their sexual orientation.

"These practices are based on the false idea that being LGBTQ is a mental illness that needs to be cured," said Alison Gill, a lobbyist for The Trevor Project, which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention to young gays, "an idea which has been rejected by every major mental health group for decades."

Even critics of the law objected to administering shocks and forcing vomiting. But the committee also heard from people who said they were formerly gay who credited therapy with helping rid them of homosexual feelings.

Two therapists told the lawmakers that they should be allowed to help clients, even those under 18, become straight if that's what they want.

"I fix what they want to fix," said Tara King, a Brick-based counselor.

The senators heard from a practitioner who criticized that point of view. "It's not client-centered to try to fix something," said Jacquelyn Warr-Williams, a social worker who said the bill does not outlaw therapists' helping clients explore issues related to their sexuality.

They also heard from people who said that the bill, if adopted, would undermine parents' ability to do what they believe best for their children.

"I don't understand who you people are, trying to come into our homes and tell us what to do with our children," said Carol Gallentine. "I see you people bullying the parents."

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Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.