The Salt Lake County Council is calling on the Utah Legislature to end a widely discredited form of therapy that attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ youth — a move that comes just months after lawmakers on Capitol Hill gutted a proposal that would have done so.
The resolution, passed unanimously by the partisan council on Tuesday, urges state lawmakers to protect minors from so-called “conversion therapy” to prohibit mental health professionals from subjecting minors to “harmful” and “discredited practices.”
Several members of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum spoke against the resolution during the council’s public comment period, while the Utah Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention urged the council to approve it.