Scott Wiener attempts to defend conversion therapy malpractice bill after SCOTUS rules against ban on practice

California’s Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday held a hearing regarding Senate Bill 934, a bill introduced by Senator Scott Wiener that expands the statute of limitations for people to sue for malpractice over "conversion therapy." 

The bill, introduced in January, would extend the statute of limitations to 22 years after a minor turns 18 and 10 years for adults. The hearing comes after the Supreme Court sided with a Colorado counselor in her case, ruling that the state’s ban on conversion therapy for minors conflicted with the First Amendment. California passed a similar law in 2012.

Wiener defended his bill in the hearing in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, saying that California’s ban on conversion therapy could not be in "legal jeopardy" over the Colorado ruling. He said that the justices’ ruling was "essentially saying that psychological torture of children is somehow free speech."

"It is critically important to understand that California's law was not part of the Supreme Court case. It was Colorado law, but there have already been rumblings of a legal challenge to California's law, and so here we are. It's also important to understand that the Supreme Court ruling, the majority opinion by Justice Gorsuch specifically said that malpractice claims, or malpractice cause of action is different than a conversion therapy ban, and that was important, and that's what we are doing here today."

During the hearing, Senators on the committee heard from Genspect ambassador and detransitioner Jonni Skinner, who recounted his experience of undergoing cross sex hormone treatments and puberty blockers as a child, and how his therapists had not "explored why I felt dysphoric."

"When I was young, I was a feminine child, and I discovered trans influencers online. They said, change your body and your life gets better, don’t, and it gets worse. Or as my doctors told my mom, I would commit suicide. The medical and mental health providers didn't bother to ask why I felt the way I did. They poisoned my body with blockers and hormones, arresting my puberty and messing with my development. 

"The result, I'm a 23-year-old gay man who's never had an orgasm and may never experience one. Let that sink in. I was rendered anorgasmic because once you say you could be trans, that's it, full stop, no exploration as to why is allowed, even if you are a struggling kid."

He said that Wiener’s bill "guarantees that more people will end up like me, the walking but wounded. I could have been spared all of this if any of my therapists would have explored why I felt dysphoric, but they never did. They only led me to hate my body more."

"The Supreme Court just ruled in a rare bipartisan decision that laws like this are unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. This bill is an attempted workaround that will be used to silence therapists who could have helped me avoid the irreversible harms to my body and the loss of my sexual function, as is the same for many others. So today, I ask you to extend some empathy to survivors like me and vote no for this bill."

Wiener was questioned over whether the bill would require therapists to only affirm a patient’s identity. He said that the bill covers providers who attempt to turn gay people straight, or if they say to patients, "You are telling me you identify as a woman. I am going to convert you to identify as a man." 

She questioned Wiener, saying that "on one hand, you have, as I understand, the bill it was to focus on therapy that is harmful and that has been discredited by every single mental and physical health organization," however, "I’m hearing other concerns raised."

Wiener said the bill only convers "conversion therapy," and does not "in any way prohibit people going to see a therapist to explore their sexual orientation or their gender identity. That has always been allowed. It will continue to be allowed. And so this notion that no one can even talk to a therapist about is not true."