FEATURED BILL: MENTAL HEALTH PROTECTION ACT

LGBTQ youth who undergo conversion therapy, or attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, are more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide than those who do not. LGBTQ youth in the South are more likely to report undergoing conversion therapy than those in other regions. 

That’s why Rep. Fisher, along with her colleagues Reps. Butler, Dahle, and Harrison, and Sens. Marcus, Chaudhuri, and Murdock, introduced the Mental Health Protection Act this March.

The bill would prohibit licensed social workers, family therapists, mental health counselors, psychiatrists, and psychologists from engaging in conversion therapy with minors or adults with disabilities. 

Decades of research show that conversion therapy lacks medical justification, violates human rights principles, and puts people at risk of suicide and other physical and psychological harm. Its unethical practice should be outlawed in North Carolina.