Democratic lawmakers propose nationwide ban on gay conversion therapy

Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill that seeks a nationwide ban on a form of therapy that purports to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 was proposed by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), along with Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), according to The Gospel Herald.

The legislation, which was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday with the support of 70 other Democratic members of Congress, would allow the Federal Trade Commission to "classify conversion therapy and its practitioners as fraudulent."

"The bill is very simple," Lieu told The Washington Post. "It says it is fraud if you treat someone for a condition that doesn't exist and there's no medical condition known as being gay. LGBTQ people were born perfect; there is nothing to treat them for. And by calling this what it should be, which is fraud, it would effectively shut down most of the organizations," he went on to say.

A number of approaches to changing an individual's sexual orientation have been developed since 1952, when homosexuality was included as a mental illness in the first edition of the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Some therapists have recommended electric shock treatments while others told their patients to wear a rubber band on their wrists and snap it whenever they have "same-sex erotic" thoughts.

Conversion therapy has been labeled by numerous organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Psychiatric Association (APA), as harmful and dangerous.

Only the District of Columbia and seven states, including New Mexico, California, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, and New Jersey, have passed laws banning the controversial practice. However, the laws are mostly focused on banning the therapy for minors rather than for all people.

Lawmakers have tried to introduce the legislation to ban the practice nationwide in 2016, but it never received a formal hearing.

Evangelist Franklin Graham took issue with the assertion that "LGBTQ people were born perfect," saying all people are "born imperfect, with sinful natures." He contended that the Democrats are "misled" in their efforts to ban conversion therapy.

"Homosexuality is defined by God as sin, an abomination to Him. There's one 'conversion therapy' that works for all sin, and that is asking Jesus Christ to come into our hearts. He can transform and heal our lives, making us new," Graham wrote on Facebook on Friday.

Conversion therapy has been criticized by other Christian leaders such as Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who said that "reparative therapy is not the way to go." He said that Christians have historically sinned against homosexuals by "reducing a massive human struggle to simplistic explanations."

The proposal is expected to be debated by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. President Donald Trump will be able to veto the bill even if it is approved by the legislature.