LGBTQ activists, Gov. Walz, demand ‘conversion therapy’ ban.

Gov. Tim Walz and LGBTQ activists rallied at state Capitol on Friday to demand that Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate pass a ban on “conversion rapy” for mirs, a discredited practice that seeks to turn gay people straight.

proposal passed Democratic-controlled House last year but an effort to amend it onto a larger bill on Senate floor by Sen. Scott Dibble failed late in session. Minneapolis Democrat, who is openly gay, said he plans to reintroduce it this year, though he ackwledged in an interview that enacting it will be an uphill fight.

But he has an ally in Democratic goverr. Walz pointed out to a crowd of about 100 people in Capitol rotunda that 19 or states have enacted conversion rapy bans, most recently conservative Utah last month, while a Republican-controlled legislative committee in Oklahoma approved a ban Wednesday.

“ idea that this absolutely discredited, Byzantine, torturous way of telling our children y are t who y are has got to end and will end,” Walz said.

Roger Sanchez, an activist with LGBTQ civil rights group OutFront Minnesota, described himself as a survivor of conversion rapy. He said he grew up thinking re was something wrong with him because he was gay, so he consented when people he trusted proposed conversion rapy. He said he still suffers nightmares because of it.

“I was brainwashed to believe that being LGBTQ was wrong. My rainbow at that time was drained of its color. I smiled but inside I was dying,” Sanchez said. “However, in college I connected with LGBTQ-affirming students. I realized I wasn’t alone in my struggle. y are ones who helped me accept myself.”

American Psychological Association says conversion rapy is t based in science and is harmful to mental health.

Sue Abderholden, executive director of Minnesota chapter of National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she attended rally “because being LGBTQ is t a mental illness, and you can’t provide rapy to something that isn’t an illness.”

Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, a conservative Christian from Nisswa, did t immediately respond to messs via his spokeswoman seeking comment on wher Senate might consider bill this year.

Senate voted down a ban on a party-line vote last May, with Republicans arguing that it was matter of religious freedom. After that, Star Tribune revealed that Gazelka’s adult daughter, Genna Gazelka, came out as a lesbian as a teen and w identifies as bi-. Genna Gazelka was upset with vote and told newspaper that conversion rapy is tantamount to torture.

Dibble said in an interview that he plans to ask Senate leadership to allow hearings on his bill. He said “a number” of his Republican colleagues in Senate want to vote yes. He named Sens. Scott Jensen, of Chaska, and Eric Pratt, of Prior Lake, as Republicans he’s working with who could vote for it if y had chance. Republicans hold just a narrow three-vote majority in Senate, but Dibble said getting bill to floor for a vote would require some creative thinking.

“We’re working toger on finding a path to get to yes,” he said.

Im Source: AP