L.A. legislator, activists say gay conversion therapy still exists

In an effort to halt reported abuse at programs claiming to help young people -- such as offering to “fix” gay children -- a state lawmaker and LGBT activists on Friday announced a campaign to regulate the so-called “troubled teen” industry.

“Under the veil of religious exemption, some facilities in California and abroad claim to help troubled teens or to ‘cure’ LGBT kids through residential schools, camps or wilderness programs,” said state Sen. Ricardo Lara, who appeared Friday in Hollywood with employees of the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

“Many of these facilities have operated without regulation or any type of oversight -- and without oversight, it’s impossible to protect our children,” Lara said.

Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, has introduced the Protecting Youth From Institutional Abuse Act, legislation that he said would regulate the private industry that treats troubled teens.

The legislation would require private alternative youth treatment and education institutions – such as boot camps, therapeutic boarding schools, religious children’s homes and behavior modification programs -- to be licensed by the state Department of Social Services.

According to a draft of Senate Bill 524, there are at least a dozen unlicensed youth residential institutions in California. Nationwide, the proposed bill says, there are hundreds of such facilities, serving between 10,000 and 14,000 youth each year.

Though the institutions – often owned and operated by nonprofits -- advertise services for youth with behavior issues, they often are not licensed to treat substance abuse or mental health disorders.

Lara said he had heard “horror stories” about young people being abused in such facilities and that parents often send their children to the facilities to “fix” them or change their sexual orientation.

Lara’s proposed bill is supported by the L.A. LGBT Center and the nonprofit Survivors of Institutional Abuse.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, youth in such facilities experience high levels of maltreatment, physical abuse and neglect that sometimes leads to accidental death or suicide. Weaknesses in the federal and state regulatory structure of the facilities has failed to safeguard vulnerable youth, the agency said.

Dave Garcia, director of public policy for the L.A. LGBT Center, said his organization has seen the consequences of parents sending LGBT kids to such facilities. Gay teenagers, he said, have reported conversion therapy, food and water deprivation and being forced to work and exercise until they become sick.

Therapies aimed at converting minors from gay to straight is illegal in California. But, Garcia said, it still happens by different means.

Some gay youth report being subjected to “no-touch therapy,” in which no one is allowed to touch them until they say they aren’t gay anymore, and they are forbidden from discussing same-sex romantic relationships and from saying they are gay.

Many of the facilities, Garcia said, are religiously affiliated. The proposed legislation would not allow for religious exemptions that would allow facilities to not be regulated by the state.

“Your religion does not give you the right to abuse a child,” Garcia said. “No cross will protect you from the law.”

The LGBT Center also announced that it was working with U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and others in Congress to press for federal legislation to regulate the industry. It is common, officials said, for programs forced to close in one state to re-open in another, operating under a different name.

“Families that turn to these treatment programs for help, often as a last resort, must know that their children are safe and in the care of professionals,” Schiff said in a statement.

hailey.branson@latimes.com