Minnesota Democrats took control of the political branches of the state government in January 2023 and immediately set about advancing the agenda and priorities of their left-wing base. In something like the playing time of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy,” the Minnesota House and Senate passed bills establishing Minnesota as a “trans refuge” state and banning “conversion therapy” on minors and “vulnerable adults.”
The rush to enact the bills into law precluded any serious examination of their provisions. The “trans refuge” law, according minors the right to come to Minnesota for genital mutilation regardless of the law of their home state, is absurd on its face but has no bearing on Robin Westman’s horrifying mass shooting and murder spree in Minneapolis last week.
The Minnesota law banning “conversion therapy,” however, is worth another look in light of Westman’s crimes. Unlike the “trans refuge” law, one version or another of a “conversion therapy” ban has been adopted by 23 states. As it applies to minors, the Minnesota law bans therapy “that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions…”
Robin Westman was born Robert Westman but changed his name at 17 because he identified as a female. If Westman had been troubled by the feelings that led to his identification as female and wanted to confirm his masculinity, the law would have prevented him from receiving professional help of this sort. So-called gender affirming care is the only legal treatment.
Before the attack, Westman reportedly professed to “regret being trans.” He wished he “had never brain-washed” himself, according to the New York Post. While Westman was 23 at the time of the attack and the “conversion therapy” law would not have banned his receiving help to resolve the discomfort he felt with his masculinity, it would have limited his right to receive such help were he deemed a “vulnerable adult” as defined by Minnesota law. In effect, the law discourages mental health professionals from providing any such help.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz was an avid supporter of the “trans refuge” law and the ban on “conversion therapy.” Indeed, the laws codified executive orders Walz had already issued, one making Minnesota a “trans refuge”—that is, a “sanctuary” where minors can suffer permanent genital mutilation in a manner that would be illegal where they live—and another banning conversion therapy.
Walz’s executive order described conversion therapy as a “dangerous and discredited” practice that seeks to change a person’s “gender identity” or “gender expression,” citing “the harm it causes to children’s mental health.” He appealed to the authority of the teachers’ unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which inflicted untold damage on the mental health of children by lobbying to keep schools closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
When the “trans refuge” and “conversion therapy” bills were passed in early 2023, Walz held a joyous signing ceremony and announced that “the march of bigotry and hate stops at Minnesota’s borders.”
If all this makes sense to you, you may need help yourself. Just don’t seek it in Minnesota.
Scott W. Johnson is a retired Minneapolis attorney and contributor to the site Power Line. He is also the father of Free Beacon editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson.
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