North Carolina on Friday became the first Southern state to ban the use of state funds for “conversion therapy” for minors, NBC News reported.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed the executive order, which noted that North Carolina is home to approximately 320,000 adults who identify as LGBTQ. The order also noted that suicide rates and ideation are high among the nearly 700,000 people nationwide who have undergone conversion therapy, a widely condemned practice that attempts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The American Medical Association has concluded that ‘it is clinically and ethically inappropriate for health care providers to direct mental or behavioral health interventions … with a prescriptive goal aimed at achieving a fixed developmental outcome of a child's or adolescents sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression,’” the order stated.
After he signed the executive order, Cooper shared a tweet stating, “Conversion therapy has been shown to pose serious health risks, and we should be protecting all of our children, including those who identify as LGBTQ, instead of subjecting them to a dangerous practice."