LGBT Youth Don't Need Psychiatric Therapy: Obama

LGBTs are getting accepted in the world. Do they really need psychiatric treatment? President Barack Obama, at least, doesn't think so.

He is calling to end to psychiatric therapy treatments that try to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of gay, lesbian and transgender youth, according to france24.

It happened since there was an online petition posted on the White House website, after 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen, committed suicide in December. She left a note that said her parents had forced her to attend the "conversion therapy."

Late Wednesday, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett clarified that the administration supported the banning of the practice for minors.

"We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer youth," Jarrett said. "The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm."

Though there is no call for Congressional legislation to ban the therapies everywhere, Jarrett's statement highlighted states that have stopped the practice and hoped for more action.

The White House document talked about lawmakers in 18 states that have introduced legislation that is similar to laws passed in California, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., which bans licensed professionals from using conversion therapy on minors.

The American Psychiatric Association has always talked against conversion therapy, which takes place on the strange assumption that homosexuality is a "mental disorder."

Leelah Alcorn was the Ohio teenager on whose death the White House filed its petition and got online friends through her posts on Tumblr. Her posts constantly highlighted her depression and isolation, and lamented that things are worsening for her. She was upset that her parents wanted her to be "their perfect little straight Christian boy," and was taken to "Christian therapists" who were "very biased," she wrote.

On December 27 last year, Alcorn posted a suicide note on tumblr, and then walked into her death before a semi-trailer, according to theguardian.

Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, welcomed Obama's statement.

"Having President Obama and the weight of the White House behind efforts to ban conversion therapy is so critical in the fight for transgender and LGB young people," Keisling said. "My hope is that when a transgender person's struggle is acknowledged by one of the most recognizable figures in the world, it positively changes the way they view themselves. The pseudo-science that propels conversion therapy cannot match the self-acceptance that comes with this kind of change."