The OutCenter Southwest Michigan in Benton Harbor says a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week that blocked Michigan’s ban on conversion therapy represents a “catastrophic failure to protect vulnerable youth” from harmful practices.
The Michigan law, signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2023, prohibits mental health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy with a minor who is LGBTQ+. The court last Wednesday sided with Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee, and Hillsdale Counties and a psychologist who said the ban infringes on their First Amendment rights.
The OutCenter’s Willow Sipling tells us conversion therapy is dangerous, and according to the United Nations, torture. Sipling says this affects young people here in Southwest Michigan.
“The folks in our area that are feeling harm are people that have unfortunately gone through conversion therapy or have had their kids go through conversion therapy and have told them the parents about that, and these practices are absolutely harmful,” Sipling said.
The OutCenter says conversion therapy falls under a broader category called SOGICE, or Sexual Orientation Gender Identity Change Efforts, something young people will not be protected against with the law being blocked. Sipling tells us the state law only banned professional clinicians from engaging in conversion therapy, and often, more informal conversion therapy would occur in other settings.
“Conversion therapy, that was officially banned for therapists to practice, but these more covert types of SOGICE, the less overt forms like conversion therapy, unlike those, they can fly under the radar.”
Sipling is now concerned young people who already feel unwelcome could encounter such practices when seeking the help of counsellors just because of that individual’s personal beliefs.
“So there’s this sort of implicit lack of welcome in maybe schools or other organizations. But then if they sit down with a therapist and the therapist is trying to get them to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, even with talk therapy, this lack of affirmation and this lack of actual exploration is, is causing them a lot of psychological incoherence because they feel one thing, they know one thing, and then they’re being told based on an ideological message that that’s wrong and they need to, they need to change.”
Sipling said in such a case, a clinician would be using their license to provide a sense of legitimacy to a discredited practice, likening such situation to a “flat earther” teaching geography in a school.
The OutCenter says awareness is the best response, noting it maintains a referral list of safe clinicians who won’t offer conversion therapy. If anyone encounters a counsellor who engages in the practice, the OutCenter would like to know.
Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she’s evaluating her options following last week’s court ruling.
