Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Minnesota a step closer to banning conversion therapy following House passage

Rep. Athena Hollins takes questions about HF16, a bill that would prohibit conversion therapy with children or vulnerable adults, ahead of the Feb. 20 House Floor session. (Photo by Andrew VonBank)
Rep. Athena Hollins takes questions about HF16, a bill that would prohibit conversion therapy with children or vulnerable adults, ahead of the Feb. 20 House Floor session. (Photo by Andrew VonBank)

For LGBTQIA+ youth, conversion therapy intends to fundamentally change their identity.

“We must move past the idea that queer people, especially our children, can choose their sexuality or gender identity and let them show up as their full, glorious, authentic selves,” said Rep. Athena Hollins (DFL-St. Paul).

She said conversion therapy is a discredited practice opposed by every mainstream medical and mental health organization.

Hollins sponsors HF16, legislation that would ban conversion therapy for children and vulnerable adults. It was passed 81-47, as amended, Monday by the House. It now moves to the Senate.

“How many of you second guess holding your spouse’s hand in public? How many get advice from strangers on which public restroom to use?” asked Rep. Brion Curran (DFL-Vadnais Heights). “This is the reality of being queer in America and it comes from the notion that people can be abused into conformity.”

Rep. Larry Kraft (DFL-St. Louis Park) said conversion therapy has been shown to cause serious and dangerous harm to those who undergo it, including depression, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, alienation and increased suicidal behaviors.

Unlike their cisgender, heterosexual peers, many queer kids undergo forms of talk therapy, as well as more extreme practices like electroshock or aversion therapy intending to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

That’s not all the bill would address.

Similar to Gov. Tim Walz’s executive order prohibiting insurance companies and health care plans from paying for conversion therapy, the bill would bar medical assistance from covering it.

False or fraudulent misrepresentations of conversion therapy would be forbidden, such as guarantees of changing someone’s identity or portraying homosexuality as a mental disease, disorder or illness.

If it does not seek to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, mental health professionals or practitioners could continue to provide counseling to people undergoing gender transition or any counseling that relates to identity exploration and development.

Rep. Anne Neu Brindley (R-North Branch) offered the only amendment that was adopted. It would limit the language of the bill and its implications on conversion therapy to a therapist-client relationship.


Related Articles


Priority Dailies

House passes tax package that includes rebate checks, $1 billion in new revenues
Rep. Aisha Gomez and House Majority Leader Jamie Long talk during a break in the May 20 debate on HF1938, the tax finance and policy bill. (Photo by Catherine Davis) Is it the largest tax cut in Minnesota history? Or the biggest tax hike the state has ever experienced? Could it be both? That’s the crux of the debate about the conference ...
House passes finalized cannabis legalization bill, sends it to Senate
A supporter of cannabis legalization demonstrates in front of the Capitol in 2021. The House repassed a bill to legalize recreational cannabis, as amended in conference committee, May 18 and sent HF100 to the Senate. (House Photography file photo) The House gave the green light to adult-use recreational cannabis Thursday. “The day has finally arrived. Today is the day that we are going to vote here in the House for th...

Minnesota House on Twitter