California governor OKs ban on gay conversion therapy

(CNN) -- Therapy aimed at turning gay kids straight will soon be illegal in California, with the state's governor declaring he hopes a new law will relegate such efforts "to the dustbin of quackery." The legislation -- which the state Senate passed in May, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law this weekend and will take effect January 1 -- prohibits attempts to change the sexual orientation of patients under age 18.

"This bill bans non-scientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide," Brown tweeted. "These practices have no basis in science or medicine."

But practitioners of so-called "reparative therapy" say the assertions of the governor and gay rights advocates "just are not true," according to David Pickup, a spokesman for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

Joined by "individual therapists and individual minor clients," his group will file a "major lawsuit" this week to challenge the law," Pickup said. The Pacific Justice Institute separately told CNN it will file its own lawsuit Monday, alleging the law violates the First Amendment.

"We do competent therapy, therapy that truly works," Pickup, who himself underwent such therapy and now administers it to others, said Monday on CNN. "For them to have a bill that says, 'No, we can't even talk about these issues, we can't do anything to help these children resolve their homosexual feelings and maximize their heterosexual potential' -- that's the height of political and therapeutic irresponsibility."

Pickup alluded to a report by the American Psychiatric Association that, he says, doesn't find any "proof that (the therapy) causes harm." But the psychiatric organization -- which is the world's largest of its kind, with more than 36,000 members -- determined, in fact, that reparative therapy poses a great risk, including increasing the likelihood or severity of depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior for those undergoing therapy. Therapists' alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already felt by patients, the association says.

"The longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality per se is a normal and positive variation of human sexual orientation," the association says.