Yesterday, MA Chapter testified at a State House hearing
to support House bill 97, A Bill to Ban Conversion and Reparative
Therapy. I was joined by President-Elect Allison Scobie-Carroll, LICSW and Francie Mandel, LICSW, both of Children's Hospital Boston. The
bill is a first step toward preventing the use of abusive conversion therapies
on minors. The hearing room was filled with proponents and opponents who often
gave contradictory interpretations of the same statements from the American
Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. The phenomenon
is a universal one: something is said and the listeners or readers give that
something their own interpretation. Join the human experience.
Below, please see the entire NASW-MA testimony:
"Dear
Senate Co-Chair Jennifer Flanagan, House Co-Chair Kay Khan and Honorable
Members of the Committee,
Thank
you for this opportunity to testify before you on HB 97 The
Conversion Therapy Ban, an Act relative to abusive practices to change sexual
orientation and gender identity in minors.
My
name is Carol Trust. I am the Executive
Director of the National Association of Social Workers-MA Chapter (NASW-MA), the
largest professional social work organization in the state and the country.
NASW
unequivocally opposes the practice of any forms of conversion or reparative
therapy, along with the American Medical Association, the American
Psychological Association and the Pan American Health Association. Services
that purport to "cure" people with non-heterosexual sexual
orientation lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the
health and well-being of affected people. The Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO), issued a statement calling on governments, academic institutions,
professional associations and the media to expose practices known as
"reparative therapy" or "conversion therapy" and to promote
respect for diversity. The statement asserted that "Since homosexuality is
not a disorder or a disease, it does not require a cure."
At
its Annual Convention in 2009, the American Psychological Association adopted a
resolution that mental health professionals should avoid telling clients they
can change their sexual orientation through therapy or other treatments. The resolution was based on the APA’s Task
Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation, which
reviewed decades of research and found insufficient evidence that such
treatments work.
Instead
of telling clients that they can change, therapists should help them find ways
to become more comfortable with their sexual orientation. It also advises
parents and guardians to avoid treatments that portray homosexuality as a
mental illness or developmental disorder.
It
is sometimes remarkable to sit back and think about all of the changes and
developments that have occurred in the medical world. The treatment for heart disease, for example,
has evolved over the past 30 years. And
so has our understanding of GLBT development.
It was in 1973 that homosexuality was eliminated by the American
Psychiatric Association as a mental disorder. Just like one does not choose to be straight, one does not choose to be
gay, lesbian, or transgender.
What
these teens need is understanding and acceptance. And real therapy,
particularly by social workers. One of the things that make social workers
unique is that we work so closely with families and have the pulse of what is
going on in the client’s home. We work
with clients who have histories of all kinds of trauma and abuse. We know the damage that can be done when
anyone, but particularly an adolescent, whose developmental task is to figure
out who he or she is in the world and gain comfort with that role, is expected
to be someone that he or she is not.
GLBT youth are more vulnerable to bullying, depression, and
suicide. Many of these GLBT young people
feel isolated, and receive messages about their sexuality that creates
self-loathing. This might manifest
itself by the young person having anger outbursts, flunking out in school, or
cutting herself on the back of her legs
so no one can see. (I should point out that this is not a suicide attempt, but
a way to release stress.) Therefore,
the thought of an already vulnerable teen being put into the hostile
environment of conversion therapy whose goal is to force him or her to be
someone they are not is a recipe for disaster.
And it is ironic to call such an experience therapy.
Treatment
by social workers involves starting where the teens are at and helping them
accept themselves and eliminate shame and self-loathing. Part of therapy means being empathic and
non-judgmental and working on the goals that the client wants to work on. We do not persuade people to be someone or
something that they are not, which is what is practiced by conversion therapy. Licensed
Independent Clinical Social workers establish a therapeutic contract with the
teen in which it is clear that we are equal partners in reaching the
goals.
Another
factor that makes social workers unique as therapists is that we are mindful of
cultural differences. We honor and
respect the values of different cultural and racial groups and try to
understand the perspective of people who do not come from mainstream culture.
I
want to close my testimony with the following quote from the Family Acceptance
Project:
“When we hold our baby in the nursery
for the first time, no one tells us that our baby might be gay. By the time we
know who our children are, we may have hurt them in many ways. No one teaches
us how to help and protect our gay … children. We may think we can help by
trying to change them – but we need to love them for who they are.”
(From
Family Acceptance Project, Dr. Caitlin Ryan, San Francisco State University,
2009)
Massachusetts
has always been in the forefront – in education, healthcare, and high
technology. I urge you to make
Massachusetts among the leaders of the states that repeal conversion therapy.
Thank
you very much for your time.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol J. Trust, LICSW
Executive Director
NASW-MA Chapter"
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