A Colorado House committee passed a ban Tuesday on gay conversion therapy practiced by a licensed mental health professional.

Sound familiar? That’s because a House committee has passed the bill three years in a row. The Democratic majority in the House moved the bill to the Republican-led Senate, and each of the last two years it has died there in committee.

The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Paul Rosenthal of Denver, had said before the session he would try again after two defeats. He holds out hope a Republican or two in the Senate will change his or her mind. The GOP has only a one-seat majority on the floor, 18-17, but the bill would first have to get out of a committee.

The bill passed the Public Health Care and Human Services Committee on a 7-6 party-line vote.

Rep. Joann Ginahl, D-Fort Collins, talked in the hearing about her own anguish in being a closeted gay young person. She was married for five years. Like Rosenthal, she is a member of the House LGBT Caucus.

“It’s an important bill,” she said. “We’ll keep bringing it back, and hopefully, someday, we will pass this bill.”

Opponents testified that the discussion should be between a parent and child, and the state should not interfere.

Five states and Washington, D.C., have banned the practice.

Esteban Lee O’Neil told the committee he went through conversion therapy as an adult.

“Conversion therapy is not where they try and turn heterosexuals into homosexuals,” he said. “Conversion therapy is where they try and turn homosexuals into heterosexuals, and neither can be done.”

He said his Mormon faith had led him to believe homosexuality was a sin on the level of murder.

“I was desperate to change,” O’Neil testified. “Nothing seemed to work, but they convinced me I was abhorrent and mentally ill. I was told conversion therapy would cure me.”

He said he participated in a program in Denver for 10 years with about 15 men. O’Neil said five committed suicide “because of the abusive treatment we received.”

Rep. Lois Landgraf, R-Colorado Springs, asked Rosenthal if his legislation was defining conversion therapy as child abuse.

“Rep. Landgraf, it is my opinion that it is child abuse,” Rosenthal replied. “It is a harmful practice to children, and therefore the state has a legitimate role in ensuring that no therapist practices it on children.”

Drew Patterson told the committee he was testifying as a parent on behalf of his family. He called the bill a “hypocritical overreach.”

“For decades the LGBT community has demanded the government and society stay out of their relationships. stay out of their homes and stay out of their bedrooms,” he said. “The government, the courts and society have largely done so.

“Now it seems the LGBTQ lobby, in a fit of hypocrisy, seeks to insinuate itself into the very places it previously demanded society abandon.”

Brad Bergford, an Alliance Defending Freedom fellow and an allied lawyer, spoke on behalf of the state chapter of the conservative National  Lawyers Association. He read from Colorado law that said it is the policy of the state to grant parents the right to make decisions on the “care, custody and control” of their children.

“The law has long presumed that parents act in the best interest of their children,” Bergford said. “Parents make conscious choices every day on behalf of their children on the risks and benefits of participation in activities that may involve risk.

“These are proper parental choices on behalf their children that should not be ignored. So long as the decision is voluntary and informed, the decision should be given the same dignity as decisions regarding schooling, medical treatment and religious education.”

Lawyers who support the ban told the committee it had withstood constitutional tests in other states.

Daniel Ramos, executive director of One Colorado, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group. issued a statement about the bill: 

“This bill would ban dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. This legislation will protect Colorado youth by prohibiting state-licensed and registered mental health care providers from practicing conversion therapy on youth under the age of 18. House Bill 1156 will help young people receive mental health care that is ethical and affirming.

“Every mainstream mental and medical professional association in the country has discounted so-called ‘conversion therapy.’ In Colorado, many major mental health organizations – including the Colorado Psychological Association, the Colorado Psychiatric Society, the Colorado Counseling Association, Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, Mental Health Colorado, and the National Association of Social Workers – Colorado Chapter – support House Bill 1156. 

“These harmful practices use rejection, shame, and psychological abuse to force young people to try to change who they are. Unfortunately, many young people are coerced and subjected to these harmful practices, which put them at a higher risk for depression, substance abuse, and suicide.

“No young person should ever be shamed by a mental health professional into thinking that who they are is wrong. We can not allow one more young person to be targeted and hurt by these dangerous and discredited practices and are hopeful House Bill 1156 will continue to progress through the legislature with bi-partisan support, as it has the last two years.”