As director of law and policy at the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that aims to end suicide among LGBTQ youth, Casey Pick often advocates against conversion therapy, the discredited practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. But in meetings, she told me, lawmakers would often say the same thing when she brought up the need for legislation against conversion therapy: “That’s still happening?”
It is still happening—and new research from the Trevor Project, shared exclusively with TIME, shows just how much. Pick and her team found that at least 1,300 conversion-therapy practitioners are still working in the U.S. today, even though 22 states and the District of Columbia have banned licensed mental-health providers from offering conversion therapy to minors.
Studies show that people who go through conversion therapy are at increased risk for suicide, substance abuse, and other mental-health problems. Ending this debunked practice is a public-health issue—and one that, as the new research shows, continues to need attention.
“Three years ago, I went to the grocery store and bought some chives, and I kept the roots and put them into a small planter. I still have those same chives right now. Whenever I need some, I go outside and pick off a little bit.”
—Todd Anderson, a vegan chef, on the ease of growing food at home
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Today's newsletter was written by Jamie Ducharme and Angela Haupt, and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
