Colorado Lawmakers Move To Ban Gay Conversion Therapy

ACROSS COLORADO – By John Herrick for The Colorado Independent. Editor’s note: House lawmakers Tuesday passed a bill banning sexual orientation conversion therapy for minors by a vote of 42-20. Two Republicans joined Democrats supporting the ban. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Isaac Archuleta was 22 years old when he told his parents he was gay. He grew up in a Christian household and felt conflicted between his sexuality and his religion. This anxiety led him to drink heavily, contemplate suicide, and get kicked out of college, he said. When he came out to his parents, he said his mother contacted the Heritage Christian Center, a megachurch in Aurora, and found him a conversion therapist. Typically, such therapists use various techniques, including electroshock therapy, to try to convert homosexuals into heterosexuals.

Archuleta said the therapist wanted him to hang out with more men and spend less time with his mother. He said he left feeling broken. Like he was not hardwired correctly. Like he was damaged.
“So it’s not that I am doing something wrong,” he recalls thinking at the time. “It’s I am wrong.”
Archuleta, now a licensed psychotherapist with a masters degree, came to the Capitol Wednesday to testify in favor of a bill that would ban the controversial therapy for minors. He said the practice causes harm and is based on the outdated theory that homosexuality is socialized.

The hearing was in the House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee, which ultimately passed the bill 8-3, with one Republican joining Democrats. The bill prohibits mental health professionals from using this practice and makes it a violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act to advertise conversion therapy. The bill now goes to the full House for a vote.

Isaac Archuleta, a counselor to LGBTQ religious youth, at the state Capitol on Feb. 13, 2019. (Photo by John Herrick)

The medical community largely agrees there no evidence that gay-conversion therapy is effective. The practice, which has been linked to depression and suicides, is already banned for use on minors in 15 states.

But the proposed ban has drawn opposition from religious groups, who say it violates religious freedoms and First Amendment speech protections. This argument has been enough to persuade Republicans to vote down similar legislation banning conversion therapy four times in the last four years in Colorado.

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