Utah Governor Gary Herbert, a Republican, on Tuesday announced a plan to regulate therapies that attempt to alter the sexual orientation or gender identity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

Such therapies go by names such as “conversion therapy,” “reparative therapy,” “sexual orientation change efforts” or “ex-gay therapy.”

Once the plan is implemented, Utah will become the 18th state plus the District of Columbia to prohibit such therapies. Similar laws have been adopted in Colorado, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont.

(Related: Puerto Rico governor signs order banning “ex-gay” therapy.)

In June, after lawmakers failed to approve similar legislation, Herbert announced that he had asked state regulators to craft a rule to regulate such therapies. Last month, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that it objected to the rule. A large majority of Utahns – including nearly 90 percent of state lawmakers – are members of the LDS church.

The rule “fails to protect individual religious beliefs and does not account for important realities of gender identity in the development of children,” the church said at the time in a statement.

LDS spokesperson Marty Stephens said that the church supports Herbert's plan which now reportedly allows therapists to provide spiritual counseling.

“We are opposed to conversion therapy and our therapists do not practice it,” LDS spokesperson Marty Stephens said. “However, we are grateful for the clarification the new rule provides, and we support its adoption.”

The regulations could be in place by January 22, 2020.