Conversion Therapy Bans Sweep the Nation

August 22, 2019

To propel growing cultural awareness about so-called “conversion therapy,” the Gill Foundation supports new public education efforts to educate Americans about the deeply harmful and medically discredited set of practices to try to make LGBT people straight and/or cisgender. Thanks to the work of organizations including the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Trevor Project, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York ban conversion therapy by the end of 2019.

Grantees support six governors, half of whom are Republicans, in issuing executive orders to protect LGBT state employees from discrimination. After years of failed attempts, New York finally prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression and extends protections under the state’s hate crimes law to transgender New Yorkers.

Despite this progress in the states, the Department of Health and Human Services attempts to remove LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination protections from the Affordable Care Act.