(KNSI) – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order Thursday morning that restricts the use of conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth.
Executive Order 21-25 directs the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Department of Commerce to attain attestations from health maintenance organizations and health plan companies that those organizations do not cover conversion therapy. Through the order, the Minnesota Department of Human Services will not pay for conversion therapy services, and the state Department of Human Rights will investigate and take action on health organizations that practice conversion therapy.
“Today, we join 23 other states who have taken this step,” Walz said. “There’s no place for hate in this state, there’s no room for division. Our LGBTQ+ community is part — and a huge part — of what it means to be one Minnesota. When they are hurt or put through this, we all hurt, and when they succeed, we all succeed.”
Walz, along with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and DFL State Sen. Scott Dibble, called on the Minnesota Legislature to ban conversion therapy through legislation.
“Executive orders are, by their nature, temporary,” Dibble said. “The Legislature is not off the hook, so I call on my colleagues and the leadership of the Senate and the House to join me in passing our legislation.”
Office of the Governor of Minnesota YouTube page
The Trevor Project defines conversion therapy as “any of several dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” Those practices can include verbal conversations in counseling-like settings or physical, painful adverse conditioning.
The Trevor Project adds that conversion therapy is not effective at changing LGBTQ youths’ gender identities or sexual orientations, and the practice causes harm: “LGBTQ youth who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple suicide attempts in the past year.”
Legislation to ban conversion therapy in the state was introduced in the Minnesota House earlier this year, but the bill did not advance through both chambers of the legislature.
In 2019, as the Minnesota Legislature took up the issue of conversion therapy, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Genna Gazelka, one of Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka’s children and a member of the LGBTQ community, was subject to conversion therapy. “This is harassment, and it is tantamount to what could be said of torture or sexual torture,” Genna said to the Star Tribune in 2019.
“I think all of us got to the point where we couldn’t wait,” Walz said of why he and LGBTQ advocates are acting on conversion therapy now. “I wouldn’t say it was based on political strategy, it’s based on what’s the most effective way to get the greatest good for the greatest number of Minnesotans.”
Walz’s executive order restricting conversion therapy comes at a time when several state legislatures across the nation are considering anti-LGBTQ measures, namely bills that impact transgender youths’ participation in sports. To that, Walz said “never in Minnesota will we go down that road.”
Several Minnesota cities have banned LGBTQ conversion therapy.
Executive Order 21-15 takes effect on July 30th.
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