State Rep Brian Sims, Mayor Jim Kenney call for statewide protection from anti-LGBT 'conversion therapy' for PA minors

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 19 – State Rep. Brian Sims, D-Phila., Mayor Jim Kenney and other elected officials today called for passage of statewide legislation to protect minors from anti-LGBT "conversion therapy."

Sims and state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, D-Phila./Delaware, are the lead sponsors of the legislation in the House and Senate.

"In a time of extreme divisiveness, elected officials should seize every opportunity to find areas of common ground. Together, the legislature disagrees on many issues, including those considered LGBT-specific. Today we have a chance to heed the advice of dozens of professional medical associations, and ban a practice that inflicts innocent children with pain and fear. To those still peddling this barbarism as medicine, you cannot fix what is not broken and we will not rest until you are driven from this Commonwealth," said Sims, the state's first out LGBT legislator.

State Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Phila., chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, said, "As adults, we have a duty to protect children, ALL children! We should not endorse or promote, through our silence or our advocacy, any practice that has been proven to be destructive to the developing spirit of a child. This legislation would give our kids the protection that young people already have in California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Oregon, Vermont and next door in New Jersey."

The elected officials were joined by representatives of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society.

"The American Psychiatric Association and the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society have always taken clear stands against discrimination, prejudice, and unethical treatment on a variety of issues, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Therefore, APA and PaPS strongly oppose 'reparative' or 'conversion' therapy," said Deborah Shoemaker, the society's executive director.