Conversion Therapy Laws for Minors by State

Conversion therapy is considered to be a pseudoscientific practice that aims to alter an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression so that it might fit heteronormative and cisgender principles. In many countries, conversion therapy is deemed medical fraud because it is not scientifically backed. Conversion therapy has been repeatedly shown to be ineffective and damage someone’s mental health. Conversion therapy is especially concerning when it comes to minors, because of the fact that they do not get a choice in the matter. Because of the fact that minors lack medical autonomy, they do not have the right to make most decisions about treatment they receive. This means that a minor’s parents can force them to undergo conversion therapy, despite the overwhelming research on its negative effects. However, homophobic and oppressive parents, who do not love their child unconditionally, ignore the risks and instead would prefer to subject their child to mental torture for the purpose of coercing them into being something they’re not. These types of parents are abusive, and unfit to have children.

Because of the fact that conversion therapy has been proven to cause a slew of negative health effects, and minors do not have a choice in receiving it, conversion therapy should be banned for minors. As of now, 23 U.S. states (in addition to DC and Puerto Rico) have laws that fully prohibit licensed mental health professionals from providing conversion therapy to minors. In the following webpage, the National Youth Rights Association explains what conversion therapy is, the dangers of conversion therapy for minors, and each state’s laws on conversion therapy.

What is Conversion Therapy
Dangers of Conversion Therapy for Minors
Stories and Cases of the Harms Caused By Conversion Therapy
Conversion Therapy Laws for Minors by State

The National Youth Rights Association

If you’re interested in Youth Rights, consider volunteering with us. We are always looking for new members and would love to have you on board. If you have a personal story to share, of being a victim of conversion therapy, the troubled teen industry, or about a general youth rights violation, consider sending us an email at nyra@youthrights.org. We’d love to help get your story out to the world.

What is Conversion Therapy

Conversion therapy refers to a set of practices aimed at changing an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. An estimated 698,000 adults have received conversion therapy, with about 350,000 of those having received conversion therapy as adolescents. Conversion therapy is directed at LGBTQ+ people, and typically takes the form of counseling sessions where a licensed professional, religious leader, or unlicensed “life coach” attempts to steer a person toward heterosexuality or alignment with their sex assigned at birth. Methods include talk “therapy”, behavioral conditioning, prayer, and other interventions that frame same-sex attraction or gender diversity as problems to be “fixed.” While today’s most common approaches rely on mainly verbal techniques, that’s not what conversion therapy used to be.

Modern conversion therapy is rooted in older, highly coercive methods that sought to “cure” same-sex attraction through physical or psychological punishment. In the mid-20th century, particularly the 1950s through 1970s, certain psychiatrists and researchers experimented with aversion therapy, which paired images of same-sex intimacy with painful or unpleasant stimuli. Electroshock treatments were one of the most infamous techniques: individuals were shown homoerotic images and subjected to electric shocks to create a conditioned aversion to same-sex attraction. Others were given nausea-inducing drugs at the same time as being shown same-sex imagery, in an attempt to associate same-sex attraction with physical sickness.

As late as the 1960s, individuals were subjected to hormone treatments meant to “normalize” their desires, institutionalized in psychiatric wards, forcibly sterilized or given lobotomies. Certain religious programs used public shaming, solitary confinement, or intense prayer “boot camps” aimed at breaking down a person’s identity. Survivors of these practices often report long-term trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and deep shame about their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Dangers of Conversion Therapy for Minors

This practice poses a great danger to minors as it increases their likelihood of suicide and thoughts of attempting suicide. In a research report research report done by UCLA it was found that “LGB people who experienced conversion therapy showed greater odds of having suicidal thoughts and attempts compared to LGB people who had not experienced conversion therapy: 92% greater odds of lifetime suicidal ideation, 75% greater odds of planning to attempt suicide, 88% greater odds of attempting suicide resulting in no or minor injury”.

A study from the Family Acceptance Project found that LGBT youth whose parents tried to change their sexual orientation (whether alone or in conjunction with therapy or religious interventions) reported much higher risks of suicide attempts, depression, and lower life satisfaction later. 48% of youth reporting parental efforts to change orientation attempted suicide, compared with 22% of LGBTQ youth who reported no conversion experiences. Those who experienced both parental efforts and external therapy/religious conversion attempts had even higher rates, with 63% in that group attempting suicide.

Mainstream medical and mental health organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, strongly reject these practices as unsafe and ineffective. Decades of research show that conversion therapy does not change sexual orientation or gender identity, but it can cause serious psychological harm. Survivors frequently report long-term consequences such as depression, anxiety, feelings of shame, internalized homophobia, and heightened risk of suicide.

A Stanford-led study of over 4,000 LGBTQ adults found that those who had experienced conversion practices had higher rates of depression, PTSD symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Additionally, The Williams Institute reports that among LGB people in the U.S, those who experienced conversion therapy were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide, and had greater odds of suicidal ideation, planning, or attempts compared to those who did not.

Stories and Cases of the Harms Caused by Conversion Therapy

Leelah Alcorn — Leelah Alcorn was a transgender teenager from Ohio whose story became one of the most widely known examples of the devastating harm conversion therapy can cause. After she came out to her parents, they rejected her gender identity, isolated her, and forced her into Christian counseling intended to stop her from being trans. In the suicide note she posted before her death in 2014, Leelah wrote that the therapy was meant to convince her that she was “selfish and wrong” and that she should “look to God for help.” She described becoming deeply depressed, cut off from friends and supportive communities, and feeling like her life would never improve. Her death drew national attention because her own words made clear that the forced treatment and parental rejection were part of what drove her into despair.

Bowen Yang — Bowen Yang has publicly described being sent to conversion therapy as a teenager after his parents discovered that he was gay. As Them reported, what began as talk therapy soon turned into a conversion program built around shame and pseudoscientific explanations for his sexuality. Yang has spoken about how painful the experience was and how it left a deep emotional mark, even though he and his parents later rebuilt their relationship. His story is important because it shows that conversion therapy does not have to involve the most sensational forms of abuse to be deeply damaging. Even when presented as counseling or help, it can still teach a young person that a core part of who they are is something broken that must be fixed.

Sam Brinton — Sam Brinton has written about being subjected to conversion therapy as a middle schooler after their family discovered they were queer. In Them, Brinton described the experience as involving both severe psychological abuse and physical trauma, and they linked it to years of ongoing struggle around identity, safety, and coming out. Brinton has also spoken publicly about the suicidal risk tied to conversion therapy and about how the experience stayed with them long after childhood. Their story is especially striking because it shows how early these interventions can begin: not when a person is already fully independent, but when they are still an adolescent with little ability to refuse what adults are doing to them.

Curtis Lopez-Galloway — Curtis Lopez-Galloway’s parents started taking him to a Christian counselor after he came out at age 16, and, as Time reported, that counselor turned out to be a conversion therapist. Lopez-Galloway later became the founder of the Conversion Therapy Survivor Network and has spoken about the lifelong effects of what happened to him. His story reflects a pattern seen in many survivor accounts: parents may tell themselves they are getting their child help, but the result is that the child is pushed into a setting where their identity is treated as disordered, sinful, or in need of change. The long-term effect is not healing, but trauma that survivors may carry for years.

Andrew — In a 2026 Trevor Project survivor feature, Andrew described coming out to his parents at 14 and being sent almost immediately to a therapist who promised to “fix” his sexual orientation. He said that because straightness seemed like the only path to keeping his parents’ love and acceptance, he went along with it. In conversion therapy, he was told there was something wrong with him for having same-sex thoughts and was instructed to suppress them. Looking back, he described the experience as teaching him “learned self-hate.” His story is powerful because it shows how forced conversion therapy often works on two levels at once: the child is pressured by both parental rejection and the authority of a therapist who presents self-erasure as treatment.

Julie Rodgers — Julie Rodgers has written and spoken publicly about being sent into the ex-gay movement as a teenager, growing up inside ministries that promised healing from homosexuality, and spending years trying to become someone she was not. As she recounted in an excerpt published by WTTW, she was sent to Living Hope as a teenager and became deeply embedded in a ministry that told young people same-sex attraction had to be suppressed if they wanted to be good and loved by their community. Rodgers later described the cost in stark terms: she had to shut down, suppress, and fragment parts of herself in order to belong. Her story is especially useful because it shows that even when conversion therapy is framed as ministry, mentorship, prayer, or support groups rather than clinical treatment, the effects can still be psychologically destructive and shape a young person’s entire adolescence.