Conversion therapy opponents recount experiences
Sam Doran/State House News Service
Former Massachusetts resident Samuel Brinton (center) spoke about his experience in a conversion therapy program.
As part of a therapy program his parents sent him to, Samuel Brinton said he had wires wrapped around his hands that would heat up when pictures were shown of men touching other men, with the heat turning off when the images were of men touching women.
Brinton, a former Massachusetts resident who now lives in Washington, D.C., told lawmakers Tuesday that the physical aversion therapy was part of an effort to stop him from identifying as gay, which also included his therapist telling him the government had killed off gay children and that his god did not love him.
"I literally would hide from my father because I thought even touching him would hurt me," Brinton said.
Brinton and others who have undergone what's known as conversion therapy -- intended to change sexual orientation or gender identity -- shared stories with the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities as they testified in support of bills (S 1190, S 62) that would ban the use of such practices for minors in Massachusetts.
Speakers at the hearing described experiences with conversion therapy recently and decades ago, in Massachusetts and in other states.
Diego Miguel Sanchez, a transgender man who serves as policy director for the national nonprofit Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said that he went through 18 months of conversion therapy sessions to address his gender identity, where he was told how to sit, what to wear and "how to be a little lady."
"Those 50-minute sessions were calculated to erase me," he said.
Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, a Pittsfield Democrat who serves on the committee, said she has heard testimony on the bill for three legislative sessions and each time was "astounded by" the personal accounts.
"Your stories say exactly why we need this legislation passed," she said. "It's for the protection of minors and it's quite frankly a consumer protection bill for parents, for parents who are in a situation where they're confused, they're looking for help."
The bill would prohibit practices by licensed professionals that attempt or purport "impose change of an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, including but not limited to efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."
A conversion therapy ban bill last session earned favorable reports from the Children and Families Committee and the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, then was referred to the House where it never emerged for a vote.
This session, 90 legislators are signed on as cosponsors for the House version of the bill, filed by Rep. Kay Khan, the committee's House chair. Twenty-eight are signed on to Sen. Mark Montigny's bill in the Senate.
Several lawmakers spoke in support of the bill, including a panel of 11 representatives who stood together during testimony, which Rep. Sarah Peake called a "small representation of the legion of people" backing the ban.
Pediatricians, psychiatrists, lawyers, social workers, and parents of transgender and gay children also testified in favor, as did representatives of MassEquality, the Children's League of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
More than two dozen supporters testified over more than two hours, followed by comments from opponents who said they were concerned the bill could restrict legitimate therapies.
Jeff Jones, a youth pastor in Westfield who said he often refers young people to counseling, said he worries that if the bill passes, people may avoid discussing gender and sexual identity issues out of concern the topic is "too touchy."
"My fear is that on the other side of this that qualified licensed professional counselors with skills to truly help will have the fear that they will be sued for malpractice, that they will be labeled and need to be reported for child abuse," he said.
In a Massachusetts Family Institute statement, marriage and family therapist David Pickup said the bill "is in fact child abuse" and that it would violate the rights of heterosexual youth who wish to address unwanted homosexual feelings.
Pickup, who has offices in Texas and California, told the committee he practices "authentic reparative therapy," which he distinguished from the "horrible" treatments described by supporters of the ban.
"We only do therapy for clients, a lot of which are in Massachusetts, who believe that for them, homosexual feelings arise because of emotional wounding, sometimes sexual abuse," he said. "We don't treat people who are born that way."
He said he fears the committee is missing other evidence and urged them to "give a voice to people whose voices are now being covered up."
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