The New Hampshire House on Thursday
approved a bill that seeks to ban therapies that attempt to alter the
sexual orientation or gender identity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender youth, sending the measure to Republican Governor Chris
Sununu.
House lawmakers accepted changes made
to the bill by the Senate.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, called on Sununu to sign the
bill into law.
“Children across the Granite State
deserve to live their lives authentically and should never be
subjected to the abusive practice of so-called conversion therapy,”
said HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs JoDee
Winterhof. “This dangerous practice has no basis in science and is
?uniformly rejected by every major medical and mental health
?organization in the country. We thank the state legislators who
voted to protect LGBTQ youth. Governor Sununu now must sign this
crucially important legislation.”
Sununu has signaled that he will sign
the legislation.
Similar legislation has been enacted in
Maryland, Washington, Connecticut, California, Nevada, New Jersey,
Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, New Mexico and the
District of Columbia. An increasing number of local municipalities
have also enacted similar protections, particularly in Florida. In
March, Milwaukee
became the first municipality in Wisconsin to enact such a ban.
California is considering a bill that
would ban the selling or advertising of such therapies. That
bill cleared the Assembly last month.