The province doesn’t want to foot the bill for what the health minister labelled “abhorrent” conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth.
The province doesn’t want to foot the bill for what the health minister labelled “abhorrent” conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth.
Earlier this month, New Democrat MPP Cheri Di Novo introduced the bill, saying some therapists and physicians continue to maintain that being lesbian, gay, transgendered or bisexual is a form of mental illness and are billing the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for “abusive counselling sessions” intended to turn patients straight — often at the insistence of parents and with religious objections.
Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced he will ask medical regulatory bodies to prohibit what he calls the “abhorrent” treatments.
“This is not something this government would ever support or endorse,” Hoskins said in the legislature.
Di Novo told reporters, some youths have become suicidal or killed themselves in anguish. She argued Hoskins’ approach does not go far enough.
“We need far more from this government . . . we need the government to stand up here on behalf of victims. We’re talking about suicide,” she said.
Originally, Di Novo brought the issue to Premier Kathleen Wynne, the province’s first openly gay premier, but she declined, turning the issue over to her health minister.
Di Novo’s bill goes to debate in the legislature next Thursday afternoon, but she’s not confident the Liberals will vote in favour and send it to a legislative committee for further study.
Hoskins said he will approach the appropriate regulatory bodies “to explore amending the regulations to ban this practice, as it should be banned.”
A doctor himself, Hoskins, said such treatments would fall under existing provisions against professional misconduct.
“No current medical guidelines anywhere that I’ve found, certainly not in this province, support or endorse this kind of alleged treatment that would aim to change or convert someone away from being LGBT.”
Hoskins also encouraged anyone who has been subjected to the treatments to report them to his ministry or the college, a notion Di Novo scoffed at. She said an explicit ban in legislation, following California’s and New Jersey’s lead, is necessary.
“Just imagine you’re a child, you’re going to complain to the College of Physicians and Surgeons if you’re 8 years old or 12 years old?”
