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CONGRESSMAN LIEU STATEMENT ON NEW OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON “CONVERSION THERAPY”

October 15, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON - Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) issued the following statement on the release of a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on so-called “conversion therapy.” This practice, which purports to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, has been discredited by the mainstream medical community and today’s SAMSHA report categorizes conversion therapies as “harmful” and “not appropriate therapeutic practices.”

"Today's report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration makes it clear that so-called ‘conversion therapy’ is psychological child abuse - plain and simple. I commend the Obama Administration for the report and for calling for an end to this fake, dangerous practice in all 50 states. Being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is not some mental state that needs conversion; rather being LGBT is to be human. That's why I have introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act in Congress and I look forward to working with my colleagues - Democrats and Republicans alike - to pass a law that prevents fraudulent practitioners from using the ridiculous methods of conversion therapy to harm LGBT Americans."

More information on Congressman Lieu’s Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act.

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