FRANKFORT, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — LGTBQ advocates celebrated Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision to issue a ban on what’s known as conversion therapy on Wednesday.

The term is used to describe specialized counseling aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity.

The practice is now banned in Kentucky by executive order for those under 18. No federal or state funds can be used for the practice and the state’s licensure boards could also take action if a mental health professional practices it.

“If they are licensed through one of these boards and they are doing this so-called therapy that harms our children, it puts them at an increased risk for suicide. Then rightfully, those boards are going to have the opportunity to look at whether that individual should be licensed or not,” Beshear told reporters shortly after signing the executive order.

“This is a victory for me, for my life, but also for the lives of my friends who are not here anymore because they went through these things,” Brandon Long told Nexstar’s WDKY.

Long, a Campbell County state representative candidate and ordained episcopal minister said that he went through multiple rounds of conversion therapy starting at 17 and continued as recently as 2019.

“People wouldn’t even pursue those options if they were not told they needed it. I wouldn’t have pursued those things if I was not told by religious authorities in my life that there’s something wrong with you that you need to get fixed,” Long said of his experience.

However, not all who attended Wednesday’s event did so in celebration. Some came to express the differences in their own deeply held beliefs over both the constitution and religion.

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“What this bill does is it silences anybody who would offer a different path,” said Tim Tysoe, a member of Georgetown’s Royal Spring Chapel.

Tysoe was among a group of Christian pastors at the signing who believe the order silences “affirmation therapy” and that it creates complications over free speech.

“No parent is forced to bring any child to any counseling. So this idea that children are being forced or manipulated or that parents are being somehow coerced to listen to this viewpoint is a total lie,” Tysoe said.

Multiple GOP members of the Kentucky Senate released a joint statement that reads:

“Time and again, the Kentucky Supreme Court has told the governor he lacks the power to create policy in the Commonwealth. Yet again, the governor is defying the Supreme Court, the General Assembly, and the doctrine of separation of powers.

“This executive order disregards the First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion and speech and violates the fundamental parental rights and responsibilities for their children.

“The executive order uses such vague and overbroad language that health care providers are at risk, and children will be left without needed mental health care.”

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