Jim Walker and Guy Albert, two members of Gaylesta's Advocacy Committee, traveled to Washington DC to give a presentation on April 3rd to the Mental Health Liaison Group, a consortium of mental health-related professional organizations in the U.S. Their aim was to advocate for these organizations to join together in condemning "sexual orientation change efforts" (SOCE) or "conversion therapy" as unethical. Their presentation was well-received and we are confident that dialogue has begun among representatives from these concerned organizations to yield such a statement. The abstract of their presentation is reproduced below; if interested, the PowerPoint presentation may also be viewed by clicking on the link below the abstract:

“Conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy” are a hodgepodge of change efforts misnamed as therapy. They are meant to help people suffering from unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) and gender dysphoria. Even practitioners of these methods have difficulty demonstrating that what they do is ethically and theoretically sound. “Conversion” practices are harming people in noticeable numbers. In 2015, the major healthcare organizations of the United Kingdom issued a joint Memorandum of Understanding declaring “conversion therapy” unethical. Their memorandum also signaled collaborations across organizations for improved healthcare education. Action in the U.K. offers U.S. healthcare associations a potential model for addressing significant harms in a complex therapeutic environment. We ask all MHLG member associations to join a working group to produce a U.S. equivalent of the U.K.’s joint collaborations.

To access the PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file:

http://www.gaylesta.org:80/resources/Documents/Toward-a-Joint-Statement.pdf

To access the PowerPoint presentation (this is a large file):

http://www.gaylesta.org:80/resources/Documents/Toward-a-Joint-Statement.pptx