On Sunday the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, announced he signed a state legislative bill banning the controversial sexual orientation reversal therapy treatment for children, NBC News reports.
The bill will prevent those under 18 from undergoing therapy that's aimed at reversing homosexuality, and will go into effect Jan. 1.
Clarissa Filgioun, board president of Equality California, said Governor Brown has reaffirmed medical and mental health organizations outlook that these reversal therapies are not therapies but are prejudice practices that harm those in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
Human Rights Campaign President, Chad Griffin, urged other states to follow California's footsteps.
"LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) youth will now be protected from a practice that has not only been debunked as junk science, but has been proven to have drastically negative effects on their well-being," said Griffin.
The bill's sponsor, Senator Ted Lieu, said the pyschiatrist who pioneered the therapy, Dr. Robert Spitzer, has since renounced the therapy and apologized to the LGBT community.