LGBTQ+ Community Strongly Opposes Changes to Conversion Therapy Law - InDepthNH.org
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Changing the state’s four-year-old law which bans “conversion therapy” for youth is bringing out strong opposition among the state’s LGBTQ+ community.
In a press conference Tuesday, the day before a House of Representatives is expected to vote on House Bill 1077 as well as House Bill 1180 relative to school sports, Chris Erchull of GLAD said it would “eviscerate” protections under the ban and leave parents and teens vulnerable to coercive, expensive, and discredited counseling approaches.
Supporters say the new law needs tweaking to allow those who would like to seek counseling, so long is it is not against the client’s will.
The latter bill, recognizing a birth certificate as a differentiation of sex for any public entity, is also being rejected by the LGBTQ+ community.
Linds Jakows said the 2018 state law, passed when Republicans held the majority and Governor Chris Sununu signed, was “a hard-earned victory.” It made New Hampshire the 19th of 20 states in the nation which oppose the counseling practice of attempting to change a young person’s sexual orientation.
New Hampshire would become the first state to reverse its ban, making it a haven for therapists who wish to continue such practice and an island in a sea of states and Canada that support such bans.
The press not only heard from opponents of the change but from a transgender nine-year-old New Hampshire girl, bullied in second grade for her gender, whose parents had to move to another community.
She said in the future she would like to be on a girl’s ski team and should be able to play sports on teams with other girls and opposed House Bill 1180 as excluding her.
Her mother spoke as well.
“My family should not have to be showing up like this, year after year, just to protect our child. But here we are again,” said Abi Maxwell.
She said growing up in New Hampshire, being part of a ski team was a bright spot in an otherwise dark time in her childhood and it taught the positive lessons she has carried into adulthood.
Maxwell said she skis with her young daughter now, and they see ski race training. She said Frida asks how fast racers go and, if someday she may be able to ski race as well on a girls team.
“I tell her that of course she will, knowing I will have to work so hard to keep my words true,” Maxwell said. “She knows her rights are not a given. This is a lot for a nine-year-old to carry.”
Maxwell said she and her husband save money each year for her to be able to ski race someday, “knowing something as simple as that could save her life.”
Suicide is a threat that looms for children facing a gender identity crisis and proponents of the bill say the idea is to allow for children to get the therapy they want and need.
Casey Pick of the Trevor Project, which helps to avoid youth suicide with crisis services, said the organization has had more than 700 annual contacts with New Hampshire youths but that represents a minority of those suffering. Pick said statistics show that more express ideation of suicide if they have undergone conversion therapy and that, “youth are under tremendous pressure to change.”
Pick opposes HB 1077 because the ban gives those minors the protection they need from those, including parents, and Erchull said now is the time to put to rest the concept that the LGBTQ+ community is not united in opposing these proposed changes in law saying the HB 1077 “eviscerates” and strips away the protections which now exist.
Mathew Shurka, co-founder of Born Perfect and a self-described survivor of conversion therapy from age 16-21, said the current ban protects parents emotionally and financially as well, noting he has come full circle from not speaking to his mother for three years because counselors blamed Shurka’s parents during conversion therapy and that his parents spent more than $35,000 on the therapy.
The group plans to protest the legislation at 8 a.m. Wednesday as lawmakers enter the State House to vote on both measures.
source: https://indepthnh.org/2022/03/15/lgbtq-community-strongly-opposes-changes-to-conversion-therapy-law-2/
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