The proposal to ban conversion therapy was torn down and replaced on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 with an alternative that will not stop the attempt to change LGBTQ youth’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The House of Judiciary Committee chose the substitute plan that the they said “would strike balance between allowing therapists to speak freely and protecting LGBTQ youth from abusive practices.” The substituted bill made by Lisbonee, [R, Clearfield] would prohibit “practices that cause pain or physical distress to a minor patient. It also would ban claims that a therapy could fully and permanently reverse a child’s sexual orientation and assertions that such a change is necessary,” (The Salt Lake Tribune).

The substitute plan does not have prohibitions that has protection against conversion therapy for gender identity. An attorney who sits on the board of Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity named Geoff Heath agreed with the plan and said that the plan by Representative Craig Hall would raise “significant constitutional problems.”An Arizona couple that identify as Caleb and Julia traveled to Utah for the committee’s Tuesday meeting so that Caleb could talk about how his therapist traced his same-sex-attraction back to trauma from his childhood. He said that the counseling “paved the way to marry Julia.” Hall told the committee that therapists could get crafty and that his bill would not “interfere with appropriate treatments for gender dysphoria or sexual trauma.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints originally took a neutral position on Hall’s original bill but a church spokesmen did not have any comments for Karianne Lisonbee’s new and edited bill.

The American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other leading mental health and medical associations  have rejected conversion therapy and said that the practice is dangerous, ineffective, and linked to both depression and suicide. After Nanci Klein from the Utah Psychological Association and Taryn Hyatt who is area director for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention are both in favor and support Hall’s original plan. Hyatt said “Suicide does not happen in our LGBTQ community because of their identity. It happens because of the world’s reaction to it.”