‘Conversion Therapy’ Banned|for Children in Ontario

(CN) - Ontario, Canada, prohibited "conversion therapy" - attempting to change one's sexual orientation from gay to heterosexual - for children younger than 18.

The province's Bill 77 received royal assent on June 4, the day the Legislative Assembly approved it on its third reading.

The "Affirming Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Act" amends the province's Health Insurance Act and the Regulated Health Professions Act of 1991.

It states that "efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity" are not covered by insurance, and that "No person shall, in the course of providing health care services, provide any treatment that seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person under 18 years of age."

So-called conversion therapy, used only on homosexuals, has been banned in California, New Jersey, Oregon and the District of Columbia. Medical and scientific organizations denounce it as "pseudoscience." It is supported mainly by fundamentalist Christian groups.

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