BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1172 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 1172 (Lieu) As Amended July 5, 2012 Majority vote SENATE VOTE : 23-13 BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS 6-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Hayashi, Allen, Butler, | |Ayes: | | |Eng, Hill, Ma | |Fuentes, Blumenfield, | | | | |Bradford, Charles | | | | |Calderon, | | | | |Campos, Davis, Gatto, | | | | |Hall, | | | | |Hill, Lara, Mitchell, | | | | |Solorio | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| |Nays:|Bill Berryhill, Smyth | |Nays: | | | | |Harkey, Donnelly, | | | | |Nielsen, | | | | |Norby, Wagner | | | | | | | | | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Prohibits a mental health provider, as defined, from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) with a patient under 18 years of age. Specifically, this bill : 1)Defines "mental health provider" as a physician and surgeon specializing in the practice of psychiatry, a psychologist, a psychological assistant, intern or trainee, a licensed marriage and family therapist (MFT), a MFT intern or trainee, a licensed educational psychologists (LEP), a credentialed school psychologist, a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), SB 1172 Page 2 an associate clinical social worker (ACSW), a licensed professional clinical counselor (LPCC), a registered clinical counselor, intern or trainee or any other person designated as a mental health professional under California law or regulation. 2)Defines "SOCE" as any practices by mental health providers that seek to change an individual's sexual orientation, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex. 3)States that "SOCE" does not include psychotherapies that: a) Aim to provide acceptance, support, and understanding of clients or the facilitation of clients' coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, including sexual orientation-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices; and, b) Do not seek to change sexual orientation. 4)Prohibits, under any circumstances, a mental health provider, as defined, from engaging in SOCE with a patient under 18 years of age. 5)Provides that any SOCE attempted on a patient under 18 years of age by a mental health provider, as defined, shall be considered unprofessional conduct and subjects a mental health provider to discipline by the licensing entity for that mental health provider. 6)States findings and declarations. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, minor, if any, communication and enforcement costs (fee-supported special fund) to various healing arts boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs that license and oversee mental health professionals. COMMENTS : According to the author, "this bill establishes SB 1172 Page 3 first-in-the-nation protections for youths Ýfrom] dangerous so-called therapies that aim to change a person's sexual orientation. This bill seeks to provide protections for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) youth by preventing these types of pseudo-therapies that are potentially dangerous. Practitioners may also try to alter a patient's sexuality with visualization, social skills training, psychoanalytic therapy, and spiritual inventions. Many SOCE patients report negative social and emotional consequences such as anger, anxiety, confusion, depression, guilt, hopelessness, and deteriorated relationships with family, loss of social support, sexual dysfunction, and even suicide." SOCE is sometimes called reparative therapy or conversion therapy. It is an attempt to change the sexual orientation of a person from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual. This type of therapy has sparked a national debate about the scientific relevance and the effectiveness of the therapy. On May 17, 2012, the Pan American Health Organization released a position statement on the use of SOCE. The statement calls on governments, academic institutions, professional associations and the media to expose these practices and to promote respect for diversity. In the statement, it concluded that "efforts aimed at changing non-heterosexual sexual orientations lack medical justification since homosexuality cannot be considered a pathological condition. There is a professional consensus that homosexuality represents a natural variation of human sexuality without any intrinsically harmful effect on the health of those concerned or those close to them. In none of its individual manifestations does homosexuality constitute a disorder or an illness, and therefore it requires no cure. For this reason homosexuality was removed from the relevant systems of classifications of diseases several decades ago." The statement further provided recommendations to governments, academic institutions, professional associations, and the media with respect to understanding, dealing with and responding to the utilization of SOCE. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), "lesbian, gay, and bisexual orientations are not disorders. SB 1172 Page 4 Research has found no inherent association between any of these sexual orientations and psychopathology. Both heterosexual behavior and homosexual behavior are normal aspects of human sexuality. Despite the persistence of stereotypes that portray lesbian, gay, and bisexual people as disturbed, several decades of research and clinical experience have led all mainstream medical and mental health organizations in this country to conclude that these orientations represent normal forms of human experience. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual relationships are normal forms of human bonding. Therefore, these mainstream organizations long ago abandoned classifications of homosexuality as a mental disorder." In 2007, the APA established a task force on the Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. The APA released a summary statement from the task force's findings that concluded, "the task force conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed journal literature on SOCE and concluded that efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm, contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates. Even though the research and clinical literature demonstrate that same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings, and behaviors are normal and positive variations of human sexuality, regardless of sexual orientation identity, the task force concluded that the population that undergoes SOCE tends to have strongly conservative religious views that lead them to seek to change their sexual orientation. Thus, the appropriate application of affirmative therapeutic interventions for those who seek SOCE involves therapist acceptance, support, and understanding of clients and the facilitation of clients' active coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, without imposing a specific sexual orientation identity outcome." As stated in the findings and declarations of this bill, there are numerous other organizations that have taken similar positions on the effectiveness, need, usefulness and problematic results that may occur from the utilization of such therapy and practices. The National Association for Research Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is a group of psychologists and analysts that view SB 1172 Page 5 homosexuality as a dysfunction that can be changed. According to NARTH's statement on "the right to treatment," "NARTH seeks to support the many homosexual men and women who are profoundly distressed by their condition. Homosexuality is experienced by them as completely contrary to their value system and their conviction that all men and women would normally be heterosexual were it not for disturbances in their early lives. We acknowledge that many homosexual men and women do not wish to change their psychosexual adaptation, and we respect their wishes not to seek therapy. Furthermore we do not wish to diminish the rights of homosexually oriented people in society. However, we believe that treatment should be offered to those who voluntarily seek it. NARTH works to protect the rights of clients who do seek treatment, as well as the rights of the therapists who treat them. Therapy is aimed at decreasing unwanted homosexual attractions and increasing heterosexual responsiveness, with the understanding that substantial change will require a long-term growth process." Analysis Prepared by : Elissa Silva / B., P. & C.P. / (916) 319-3301 FN: 0004697