Colorado has approved a bill allowing survivors of conversion therapy to sue licensed providers regardless of when the therapy occurred.
The measure, sponsored by State Reps. Alex Valdez (D-Denver), an out gay man, and Karen McCormick (D-Hygiene), along with Sens. Lisa Cutter (D-Littleton) and Kyle Mullica (D-Northglenn), allows people subjected to sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts to sue licensed mental health professionals for damages. Entities that hired or supervised providers engaging in conversion therapy could also be sued.
The bill eliminates the statute of limitations for conversion therapy claims, allowing survivors to sue regardless of when the therapy occurred or their current age. Current law imposes a two-year statute of limitations.
“This bill recognizes that real harm can be inflicted in the name of therapy, and that this harm might not be fully understood for many years,” Cutter said in a statement. “We are simply allowing people time to process and understand the trauma that might have been inflicted and seek the remedies already available to them under Colorado law.”
The bill adopts a more explicit definition of “sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts” in an attempt to avoid running afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Chiles v. Salazar, which found that Colorado’s conversion therapy ban violated therapists’ First Amendment rights.
Under the bill, the term refers to “any practice by a licensed mental health professional that seeks to direct a patient toward a predetermined sexual orientation or gender identity outcome, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of a particular sex or gender, regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity the patient is directed toward.”
“The bill states that “sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts” do not include counseling or therapy that “provides acceptance, support, and understanding of a patient or facilitates a patient’s coping, social support and identity exploration and development, without seeking to direct the patient toward a predetermined…outcome.”
The measure excludes neutral counseling, in which a therapist does not push a patient toward a particular identity, as well as therapy focused on a patient’s sexual behaviors, practices, or relationships.
Besides defining conversion therapy in a way that regulates substandard professional conduct, the expanded definition addresses one of the chief arguments put forth by proponents of conversion therapy: that LGBTQ-affirming therapists are “forcing” patients to adopt certain identities or imposing their own beliefs on patients.
Under the bill, an affirming therapist who pushes a patient toward a predetermined outcome could also be sued for damages.
The bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Jared Polis for his signature.
Conversion therapy has been denounced by most major medical organizations, including the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Conversion therapy has been denounced by most major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Critics say studies have linked conversion therapy to negative mental health outcomes, including higher rates of depression and suicidal ideation, and possibly even poorer heart health.
The Trevor Project, the nation’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, praised the bill for preserving Colorado’s conversion therapy ban while aligning with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
Casey Pick, the senior director of law and policy at The Trevor Project, said in a statement that “this new law serves as a powerful deterrent that may prevent fringe practitioners from subjecting LGBTQ+ youth to these debunked practices in the first place.”
In an already storied career on stage and screen, Claybourne Elder has earned Grammy, SAG, and Drama Desk Award nominations, sung with symphony orchestras and Broadway divas, and soloed at Carnegie Hall.
Yet, the performer, known for theater roles on and off Broadway, and as the ill-fated John Adams on HBO's The Gilded Age, had never released a solo album, until now, with his sparkling debut If the Stars Were Mine. The question for some might be, if not necessarily what took so long, why now?
"I think that there have been several times I'd thought about doing it," Elder tells me during a relaxed chat over Zoom. "And I was like, 'Oh, no. I mean, who wants to listen to it?' The kind of imposter syndrome gets to you, and you're like, 'Well, I don't want to.'" There's also the challenge, he acknowledges, of working out what you might want to say over an album's worth of songs.
The Pearl, Denver's only lesbian bar, has closed despite raising $83,000 through a GoFundMe campaign aimed at keeping the business afloat.
The Pearl's co-owner Dom Garcia said in an April 11 Instagram post that the bar would close at the end of the month. He wrote on the GoFundMe page that the campaign was launched to cover back rent and employee wages.
Garcia told Denverite that the campaign's initial $80,000 goal would not be enough to sustain the bar long-term, noting the business was behind on rent, property taxes, and salaries, and had incurred additional costs repairing the aging building that once housed the iconic Denver Mercury Cafe, which shut down last year.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed five anti-LGBTQ bills passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature.
The bills would have barred transgender athletes assigned male at birth from competing on female-designated sports teams in both K-12 schools and colleges; required school boards to adopt policies forcing teachers to out transgender students to their parents and obtain permission before allowing changes to names or pronouns; prohibited minors from accessing gender-affirming care; and allowed people who experience "regret" after such care to sue providers until age 33.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.