Ohio House Democrats introduce bill to ban conversion therapy on minors statewide
Ohio House Democrats introduced a bill on Wednesday to ban the discredited practice of conversion therapy on minors.
HB 300 stipulates that: “An applicant or health care professional shall not engage in conversion therapy when providing mental health treatment to a minor patient.”
Conversion therapy is defined in the bill as “the practice of seeking to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to reduce or eliminate sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward a person of the same gender.”
Every major medical and psychological organization has said that conversion therapy both doesn’t work and can result in actual harm, like increasing anxiety, depression and suicidality.
HB 300 is sponsored by Rep. Karen Brownlee (D-Symmes Twp.) and Rep. Crystal Lett (D-Columbus), and co-sponsored by 13 other House Democrats.
For Rep. Brownlee, a first-term legislator, it is no accident that HB 300 is her first bill.
“I think it’s extremely important that we as adults honor our job of keeping kids safe,” she said. “While conversion therapy is still legal in Ohio, we are allowing kids to be hurt under the guise of pseudo-scientific procedure.”
Past to present
Rep. Brownlee first learned about conversion therapy in her work as a clinical social worker focusing on improving mental health outcomes for children, adolescents and families.
“There are so many stories of youth who were forced into conversion therapy who come out truly harmed,” she said. “There is nothing evidence-based about these practices.”
HB 300 mirrors SB 71, an Ohio Senate bill introduced in February by Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) and Sen. Beth Liston (D-Dublin).
Ohio senators introduce bill to end conversion therapy statewide – their fourth attempt
Similar bills to ban conversion therapy have been previously introduced three times in the Ohio legislature, most recently in 2023 by Rep. Mary Lightbody (D-Westerville). Lightbody’s bill did not receive a hearing due to her early retirement.
HB 300 will be guaranteed a hearing due to House rules stipulating that all bills introduced before May 15, 2026 must receive a hearing before the conclusion of this General Assembly at the end of 2026.
Rep. Brownlee looks forward to the hearing as an opportunity to shine a light on the harm caused by conversion therapy and to make “a loud statement.”
“If we keep something in the dark and quietly let it exist, then we are complicit in its continuation,” she said. “If we don’t bring these topics out so that people are aware of the danger and know that it’s wrong, it doesn’t get any cultural progress in becoming something of the past.”
A question of enforcement
Currently, conversion therapy is banned in 13 different municipalities in Ohio, an area covering roughly 25% of Ohio’s population.
How to effectively enforce these bans on conversion therapy is an unanswered question.
Practitioners are able to use constantly shifting technology (“reparative therapy”, “reintegrative therapy”, etc.) to deny that they are engaging in the discredited practice. Further, as these sessions occur in private, violations are difficult to prove.
The Buckeye Flame reached out to the 13 Ohio municipalities with bans on conversion therapy to ask if they have enforced their ban against a practitioner.
City officials in the seven cities that responded were not able to identify a single instance when they enforced their conversion therapy ban.
The only incident we were able to identify was a 2020 case in Cincinnati in which the city sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jerry Armelli, a licensed therapist, for advertising conversion therapy to minors. Armelli subsequently removed that language from his website.
Although HB 330 outlines that violations could result in a suspension or revocation of a practitioner’s license, the bill does not outline a method of enforcement.
Rep. Brownlee explained that without the statewide ban, the procedures and personnel don’t exist to enforce it.
“It needs to become illegal so that we can then create a reporting methodology and an administrator, whether that’s through a licensure board or a state agency where conversion therapy can be reported and licenses can be removed,” she said.
The bill does not prohibit practitioners from supporting a minor through gender transition or from providing a patient with “acceptance, support, and understanding, or facilitating a patient’s coping, social support or identity exploration and development.”
HB 300 has not yet been assigned to a committee.