BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 1172
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          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 1172 (Lieu)
          As Amended  July 5, 2012
          Majority vote 

           SENATE VOTE  :   23-13

           BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS     6-2                APPROPRIATIONS     
              12-5            
           
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          |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             |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |     |                          |
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           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), 










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            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 










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          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.  










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          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 










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          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