Members of Gay Liberation Network ( GLN ) have started an online petition for Illinoisans who support state legislation that would prohibit anti-gay conversion therapy.
The legislation, HB 217, which has already passed the state House of Representatives, is likely to be voted on in the state Senate this week. It is sponsored there by state Sen. Daniel Biss and is scheduled to be heard in the Executive Committee on the afternoon of May 27.
"All major professional mental health associations have denounced [conversion therapy] as medical quackery," says the GLN petition. "It fails in its stated aims of changing people's sexual orientation or gender identification, and worse than that, it instills negative feelings in LGBTQ youth about themselves, and in so doing promotes suicide.
"The religious right has long promoted 'reparative therapy' because they think it's okay to deny equal rights to LGBTQs if they can convince people that we can become 'ex-gay.'
The petition is located at http://chn.ge/1FBTsMu.
Meanwhile, Equality Illinois is encouraging constituents to contact their Senators directly, either by calling ( 217 ) 782-2000 or visiting http://tinyurl.com/sen-letter-HB217.
State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, who sponsored the bill in the House, said the week of May 18 that it was not yet clear whether Gov. Bruce Rauner would sign the legislation should it clear the General Assembly. She added, however, that Rauner had spoken with an activist who had undergone the treatment and had subsequently spoken out against it.
HB 217, the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, prohibits conversion therapy for persons under the age of 18, and says that practitioners offering such services may be subject to professional discipline. The bill furthermore says that practitioners who market their services by intentionally implying that homosexuality is a mental health disorder can be subject to fraud charges.