APA has expressed support for a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that calls for an end to the practice of "conversion therapy" for children and youth.
"This important report makes it clear that conversion therapy is not appropriate for dealing with sexual orientation or gender identities in children and youth," says Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD, APA's associate executive director for public interest government relations. "It provides guidance to clinicians on current science and best practices for this vulnerable population."
Children benefit from developmentally appropriate identity exploration and integration, says Glassgold, who led APA's Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation before joining the association's staff. That task force issued a report in 2009 that found insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.
"Interventions aimed at a fixed outcome, such as gender conformity or heterosexual orientation, including those aimed at changing gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation, should not be part of behavioral health treatments," Glassgold says. "This vital document builds on APA's long-standing work on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns, especially its report on appropriate therapeutic responses to sexual orientation and its guidelines for working with LGB and transgender and gender variant clients."
— Kim I. Mills
