SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy may be revisited.
Rep. Brady Brammer, R-Highland, has requested a hearing before the Utah State Legislature's interim Administrative Rules and Government Oversight Committee on Thursday. He told FOX 13 News he is exploring whether the state's Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing had the authority to implement an administrative rule banning the practice.
"We'll see," he said when asked if the legislature might ultimately review the rule.
A presentation prepared for the committee said the legislature could open a new bill on conversion therapy, address it when it re-authorizes existing rules, recommend DOPL review the rule or take no action.
In 2019, a bill was introduced in the Utah State Legislature with a lot of support from LGBTQ rights groups to ban the practice of trying to change someone's sexual orientation and gender identity. But the bill fell apart after pushback from social conservatives on Capitol Hill.
Then-Governor Gary Herbert apologized to LGBTQ youth who protested outside his office over how it was handled in the legislature. He then pushed an administrative rule — which has the effect of law — through DOPL, which licenses and regulates therapists.
Gayle Ruzicka, the head of the Utah Eagle Forum, said she hopes the legislature does re-examine it.
"They absolutely need to revisit it and I hope it solves a problem," she told FOX 13 News on Wednesday. "This has been a rule. It has the effect of law. It has been a disaster for the children of Utah."
Ruzicka said the rule prohibits therapists from properly treating children and some have declined to do so. LGBTQ rights groups have said conversion therapy is not only widely discredited, but it is harmful and abusive in its efforts to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Marina Lowe, the policy director for Equality Utah, said her group believed the rule was fine as it exists.
"My understanding is Rep. Brammer also intends to explore some questions around the legality of the rule itself and we are fully prepared to respond to that," she told FOX 13 News. "We believe that conversion therapy bans are absolutely constitutional and our rule is fully defensible."
Any bill would not emerge until the 2023 legislative session that starts in January. Governor Spencer Cox, who has supported a conversion therapy ban in the past, was monitoring the legislation, his office said.
"As always, the well-being of parents and children is foremost in our minds and we continue to watch the debate closely," the governor said in a statement to FOX 13 News.
