Map Shows States Which Still Allow Conversion Therapy

Despite growing opposition, conversion therapy remains legal in several U.S. states, highlighted in a new map that reveals where the controversial practice is still permitted.
Also termed “reparative therapy,” conversion therapy is the umbrella term for efforts to discourage or change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the American Psychological Association.
The APA – which refers to the practices as “sexual orientation change efforts” or “gender identity change efforts” – says that these operate under the assumption that such identities “are illnesses that must be cured,” and criticized the common use of “an array of psychosocially harmful techniques, including public shaming or inducing adverse physiological reactions.”
Cathryn Oakley, senior director of legal policy at LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, told Newsweek that the practice has been widely debunked, and produced “nothing but devastating outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth, including adverse mental health effects, substance abuse problems, and suicidality.”
Nevertheless, there is still no countrywide agreement on conversion therapy, with many states yet to legislate against its use.
Movement Advancement Project, an equality-focused U.S. think tank, monitors the changing laws on conversion therapy across the country, seen here on a map created by Newsweek.
Some 23 states have so far passed bills banning conversion therapy for minors, with four states enacting partial bans.
However, 19 states have yet to approve any statewide law or policy aimed at banning conversion therapy for minors.
According to a December 2023 report by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ individuals, Pennsylvania, Texas, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio are the five states with the largest number of conversion therapy practitioners.
Over the course of its five-year investigation, the organization was able to track down 104 active conversion therapy practitioners in Texas – 67 of whom practice with active unrestricted state licenses.
The three states of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals – Florida, Alabama and Georgia – are subject to a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of conversion therapy bans, after the court decided in 2020 that legislating against the practice would violate the First Amendment.
Other states, such as Arizona and Wisconsin, have passed partial bans.
On June 27, 2023, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs passed an executive order entitled “Protecting Young People from Conversion Therapy,” which barred state agencies from funding or supporting conversion therapy for minors
Notably, however, this restriction does not ban the practice, but only prevents its practitioners from doing so with state funding.
According to the Arizona State Law Journal, such partial bans are less likely “are not as vulnerable to constitutional attack as full bans created through legislation.”
California was the first state to ban conversion efforts, according to the Movement Advancement Project, doing so in 2012.
However, some states’ bans are relatively recent developments, such as Pennsylvania.
In May 2022, Tom Wolf signed an executive order preventing practitioners from using Pennsylvania state funds, with the then-governor calling conversion therapy “a traumatic practice based on junk science that actively harms the people it supposedly seeks to treat.”
However, the practice continued and, in May of this year, Governor Josh Shapiro announced that five state boards – Medicine; Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors; Psychology; and Osteopathic Medicine – had voted to adopt new policies opposing the therapy for minors.
As a result, those found to be practicing conversion therapy can face disciplinary actions, or even lose their licenses, for engaging in the practice.
Regarding those states that have made similar moves, HRC’s Cathryn Oakley said: “We’re grateful that state and local leaders of both parties have stepped up and banned conversion therapy as we continue to shine a light on its dangers that pervade in states where it remains legal.”
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