According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), "conversion therapy," also sometimes known as “reparative therapy,” is "a range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression." The practices, which include talk therapy as well as other techniques, like shock therapy and hypnosis, can be dangerous, and they just don't work. Conversion therapy as a whole has been discredited and rejected by mainstream medical and mental health organizations for decades, according to the HRC.

Even so, that doesn’t mean it’s completely gone away. A report released by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law in 2018 estimated that approximately 57,000 LGBTQ teenagers will undergo conversion therapy from a religious or spiritual adviser in their lifetimes. The American Psychological Association has stated that “there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.” In addition, the American Medical Association has said in testimony that conversion therapy is “a coercive practice that may cause long-term psychological harm, particularly to young patients,” and that there is no scientific or medical merit behind the practice.

On April 12, Maine became the latest state to move to ban conversion therapy. After much controversy in the state House, the bill to ban the dangerous practice was approved by the chamber in a 76-68 vote, according to Maine's Portland Press Herald. The bill, known as L.D. 912, defines conversion therapy as “any practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including, but not limited to, any effort to change gender expression or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.”

If it were to pass the Senate, the bill would allow state licensing boards to revoke the certifications of therapists or counselors who practice conversion therapy techniques. The bill explicitly states that any counseling provided by a priest, rabbi, or other religious official in exchange for payment in the state would be made illegal. However, the bill would not prohibit any counseling recognized as “neutral” and intended to help minors struggling with issues surrounding sexual orientation or gender identity.

Some opponents of the bill raised concerns about the consequences for counselors who may unjustifiably lose licenses, while others raised concerns about parents possibly breaking the law to seek help for children who are “confused” about their sexual orientation. However, Rep. Colleen Madigan, a licensed clinical social worker, sought to discredit opponents’ claims that the bill would prevent therapists from offering therapy to minors struggling with sexual orientation or sexual abuse, among other issues. “This bill does not impinge on my rights to treat people in outpatient psychotherapy,” Rep. Madigan said, adding, “I have to follow the ethics of my profession, and those require that I do no harm. This bill bans harmful practices.”

Bill sponsor Rep. Ryan Fecteau shared a personal story from his youth, saying that a trusted university administrator had asked him to “see beyond” his gay identity, and recommended that he read a book encouraging conversion therapy to help LGBTQ people become straight, the Press Herald reported. Representative Fecteau said that at the time, he was a leader of his campus’ LGBT organization and a student body president, and had already come out to his parents. However, he said the message "that he needed to be fixed” caused him to experience severe depression. According to the Press Herald, he added that he knows there are young people who are “far more vulnerable than I was back then,” and that he wants to protect young people in the LGBTQ community from “the harm that can come from a trusted professional telling them, one way or another, that they are broken, that the core truth of who they are is wrong and even disgusting.”