Oklahoma Freedom to Obtain Conversion Therapy Act (HB 1598)

As introduced, HB 1598 would allow parents to seek and obtain counseling or conversion therapy from a mental health provider for their children to “end any unwanted sexual attraction.”

The bill would permit mental health providers to engage in sexual orientation change efforts with a child under eighteen years of age.

STATUS

A House Committee produced a substitute for the bill, with a new title: “Parental and Family Rights in Counseling Protection Act.”

This version would prohibit the state from prohibiting or restricting any mental health provider from providing counseling or any patient from receiving counseling intended to aid patients in their self-determined objectives of reducing, eliminating, resolving or addressing “unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, identity, or sexual and/or gender-identity expressions.”

The bill would prohibit the state from restricting the rights of parents or legal guardians from obtaining counseling, including sexual orientation change efforts, for patients who are their children and experience “unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, identity or sexual and/or gender-identity expressions.”

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