Many americans have been concerned since the election about how the new presidential administration will affect their daily lives. Perhaps the most concerned are the LGBT community, especially due to Vice President elect Mike Pence’s stance on conversion therapy.

Conversion Therapy, sometimes called reparative therapy, is a harmful forced transitional therapy that works to change people’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Conversion therapy is an extremely harmful practice that is detrimental to people’s mental health. It works by using shame, religion, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse to change someone’s orientation.

Many scientists agree that conversion therapy is a harmful practical, and that homosexuality is not a psychological issue, just a natural occurrence, and should not be treated as something to fix. The detrimental effects of conversion therapy have begun to be reported so much that even some doctors that used to use the practice have stopped, and apologize for their actions. The Human Rights Campaign, an organization trying to help protect the LGBT community reports that:

“Psychiatrist Dr. L. Spitzer, who once offered a study on reparative therapy, has since denounced the practice and has apologized for endorsing the practice”  (The Lies and Dangers of Efforts to Change Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, Human Rights Campaign).

The practice of conversion therapy has been condemned and discredited by the American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, and many other groups and organizations for its harmful practices and effects. New Jersey, Vermont, Illinois, Oregon, and California, have already passed laws banning the practice of conversion therapy from being used by licensed medical professionals. These laws only protect twenty-four percent of the LGBT population, leaving seventy-six percent exposed to the harmful practice.

A major concern since the election is what will happen to the LGBT community with Vice President Pence’s supportive view of conversion therapy.

NBC reported Pence’s statement:

“Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.”

This nod to the practice of conversion therapy has many worried about what is to come, but lawmaker Patrick Burke has other ideas.

Patrick Burke, a legislator in Erie County, New York, is attempting to pass a law that would put in end to the abusive, so-called therapy, for minors in the county. Burke’s law would be named Prevention of Emotional Neglect and Childhood Endangerment or “PENCE” for short.

Burke’s reference to the Vice President elect has caused a lot of buzz on the topic, and calls out Pence directly for his views of the unethical practice.

“Conversion therapy is an abomination. It is clearly abuse. It’s brainwashing. It does real damage. Even calling it conversion therapy takes the edge off of what it really is,” Burke told NBC news in defense of his law.

This law has sparked a lot of controversy, and Pence has yet to give a statement regarding the laws direct reference to him, spreading light on his views of the LGBT community. Whether or not this law will get passed or will have an impact on the coming Presidency has yet to be decided, but it demonstrating the public’s responsibility to take action where they see fit, using the law, and the government to work for the world that they want to see.

Burke told WBFO, Buffalo’s local news station:

“Mike Pence is probably going to have the most power of any vice president in the history of our country and he has openly advocated for conversion therapy. I want that to sink into people. I want them to realize it’s a serious issue of abuse of children, Flatly, whether they are gay or not, it’s abuse. Then you have a man who is going to have enormous power over all of us, who advocates for it.”

The responsibility belongs to the public to make and change the laws that define and affect the people, and Burke’s law is a strong example of that.