On Thursday, April 25th, House File 12, the bill to ban the use of conversion therapy on minors, made it onto the House Health and Human Services Omnibus bill. It carried with it an amendment which stripped trans and non-binary youth of transition-related healthcare.

From there it went to a reconciliation session where five House members negotiate with five members of the Senate, who put together their own HHS Omnibus bill. The purpose of the reconciliation is to arrive at one bill that both parties agree to.

Unfortunately, the Senators were unwilling to keep the conversion therapy ban in the final HHS Omnibus bill, despite support from over 70% of the public. This means that Minnesota will not ban this practice that has been deemed harmful by every major medical and mental health organization.

There are some Senators who support the ban but are unwilling to break with their party, so continue to call or write them and remind them that this proposed ban is overwhelmingly supported by the voters, the medical field, and that the founder of conversion therapy, Dr. Robert Spitzer, apologized to the LGBTQ community for all the harm he caused.

Banning what many consider to be the torture of kids shouldn’t be controversial in 2019, but this battle is yet to be won here in Minnesota.