Piper Reese
Senate failed a bill about conversion therapy, but also passed another bill on conversion therapy. How is this possible?
House bill NWOSU-501 was passed in chambers with the vote 55-0. The bill stated that no person or group of persons shall administer conversion on anyone. The penalties of the bill included the charges of conversion therapy to be guilty of felony assault and battery and held in prison for no less than five years and “shall be terminated.”
The Senate did not like the language of the bill, and it failed on Friday with the vote 9-15. However, they passed senate bill TU-002 stating that conversion therapy and any other practice of the sort shall be illegal. The only penalty in this bill is anyone who practices conversion therapy shall be fined $200,000 and charged with child abuse.
Senator Jake Ervin of NWOSU said that the reason the NWOSU-501 failed through the senate was because of the Senate’s lack of legal understanding.
“There were three specific instances,” Senator Ervin said. “The first one was that the Senate was worried about the bill was being written in the past tense. They thought it meant people could be convicted for the crime before the law was passed, which was incorrect according to our legal counsel, Senator Sharp.”
“The second instance was house bill stated that if they did one thing, they would be found guilty, which would be incorrect,” Senator Ervin said. “It’s up to the courts to decide if they did it.”
Senator Ervin said the third instance was that the house bill said that all companies and institutions who did this would be “terminated.”
“The common understanding of the Senate was that they would be murdered since they used the word terminated,” Senator Ervin said. “In legal definitions, their legal practices or licenses to do their practice would be provoked.”
Senator Jakob Harmon of UCO said he didn’t like NWOSU-501 because the terms of the new law seemed “loose,” and would allow cases to fall through the cracks.
“This wouldn’t do those who were affected by conversion therapy justice,” Senator Harmon said.
Senator Harmon’s other reason he voted against the bill because of the penalty to incarcerate on the first offense was “a bit too harsh.”
“On the first offense, I believe it should be a fine or a lesser offense, but five years of incarceration seems a bit too much,” Senator Harmon said.
When Governor Corey Shirey was asked about NWOSU-501 failing in Senate, he said that he thinks the Senate took a huge step back in LGTBQ rights.
“I think its a tragedy that the Senate decided to kill a bill that would protect children from a horrible practice,” Governor Shirey said. “We should be taking leaps forward.”
OU-004 will go to house chambers today to see if it will pass onto the governor to be signed.