North Dakota became the latest state to take action against conversion therapy after a committee approved new rules limiting the practice earlier this week.
On Wednesday, the Administrative Rules Committee within the North Dakota Legislative Assembly voted 8-7 to ban licensed social workers from engaging in “any practices or treatments that attempt to change or repair the sexual orientation or gender identity” of LGBTQ+ people. The regulation was previously proposed by the North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners, which regulates licensure for all social workers who practice within the state.
Advocacy groups celebrated the move following a mixed year for LGBTQ+ rights in North Dakota. While its Republican governor, Doug Burgum, vetoed a bill restricting trans sports participation in schools in April, he approved a “free speech” law critics said could allow student organizations to refuse admission to LGBTQ+ students.
The Trevor Project, a national youth suicide prevention group, said in a statement that conversion therapy is “not therapy at all.”
“It’s abusive and fraudulent,” said Troy Stevenson, the organization’s senior advocacy campaign manager. “There is still more work to be done in North Dakota, but this bold action will help save young lives. The Trevor Project is committed to an every state strategy to protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy and North Dakota has proven that progress is possible anywhere.”
The regulation is effectively the law of the land following this week’s vote. Rob Todaro, communications director at the Trevor Project, confirmed to them. in an email that the rule change “does not need sign-off from the governor,” as it’s essentially an internal decision already greenlit by the Board of Social Work Examiners.
One quirk of North Dakota’s approach to limiting conversion therapy, however, is that it does not equate to a sweeping legislative ban. While 20 states have passed bills outlawing the practice, the rule does not have quite the same force, and it could potentially be rewritten in the future. However, the Trevor Project affirmed that the newly enacted language applies to the “vast majority of mental health providers in North Dakota,” as they are licensed through the state’s social work regulatory boards.
Magic City Equality, an LGBTQ+ group based in Minot, expressed hope the legislature’s actions would lead to further moves to outlaw conversion therapy in the future.
“We are thrilled that the steps to ban conversion therapy in North Dakota has begun,” the organization’s board said in a joint statement shared with them. “It has been proven that conversion therapy is dangerous to the LGBTQ2S+ community, and taking steps to rid North Dakota of this heinous practice is a good thing.”
It remains to be seen whether passing a bill to banish conversion therapy is possible in North Dakota, despite the fact that treatments to “cure” an LGBTQ+ person’s identity have been condemned by the United Nations and every leading U.S. medical group. There are no statewide laws protecting LGBTQ+ North Dakotans from discrimination in areas like housing or health care, and it remains one of 4 U.S. states with no hate crime laws whatsoever for any marginalzed group.
Earlier this year, North Dakota weighed a bill that would have actually codified discrimination against queer and transgender people. Known as House Bill 1476, it would have banned the state from “creating or enforcing policies that directly or symbolically respect nonsecular self‑asserted sex‑based identity narratives,” such as through the passage of a statewide nondiscrimination law.
The Administrative Rules Committee, for its part, was divided almost down the middle on LGBTQ+ equality, even despite the rule change ultimately passing.
Critics of the regulatory move warned, for instance, that it could lead to the rights of people of faith being trampled on. “There are licensed counselors that are also Christians, and basically my concern in all of this is that we’re telling the Christian counselors: ‘You can be a licensed counselor, but you can’t practice your Christianity,’” said State Representative Bernie Satrom (R-12th District) in comments reported by the Grand Forks Herald,
Satrom also maintained that some people do want to rid themselves of their LGBTQ+ identity, and those individuals should not be punished for that. “There are some cases where people want to change,” he added.
State Rep. Kim Koppelman (R-13th District) argued that the rule is “one-sided” because it does not prevent psychologists or counselors from trying to make a straight, cisgender person LGBTQ+. Social worker Bianca Bell, a supporter of the regulation who testified before the committee, informed Koppleman that “conversion therapy is not used on heterosexual people,” as the Herald first reported.
According to a 2o19 report by the Williams Institute, an estimated 700,000 people in the United States are survivors of conversion therapy. The pro-LGBTQ+ think tank also finds that individuals who have been subjected to the practice — which ranges from talk therapy to, in rare cases, shock treatment — are twice as likely to consider suicide.
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