by Megan Brock
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is reportedly on Vice President Kamala Harris’ shortlist for running mate, collaborated with transgender activists to target professionals who help children resolve gender distress without life-altering medical treatments, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Shapiro administration and representatives of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ activist group, worked behind the scenes in a systematic campaign to effectively impose bans on so-called “conversion therapy,” without needing to pass any legislation. The Trevor Project also investigated individual licensed therapists, some of whom were connected to Christian groups, and shared part of that information with Shapiro’s administration, emails obtained by the DCNF show.
The Shapiro administration’s collaboration involved pressuring state licensing boards to adopt strict policy statements that gave them authority to take disciplinary action against licensed professionals engaging in so-called “conversion therapy.”
Though conversion therapy typically refers to efforts to change same-sex attraction, the term has incorporated gender identity as well. The new Pennsylvania licensing board policy statements, which have been adopted by five state licensing boards and went into effect June 8, define efforts to help gender-distressed children become comfortable with their natural sex — rather than affirming a transgender identity — as conversion therapy.
The new policies condemn any licensed Pennsylvania professionals who work to resolve a child’s gender distress without “affirming” a transgender identity as engaging in “immoral” and “unprofessional conduct,” punishable by the state board. Violation of board policies could result in revocation or suspension of a professional or medical license.
Furthermore, all five policy statements clarify that “gender transition” treatments, including life-altering medical or surgical interventions aimed at changing a minor’s sex, are not considered to be a form of conversion therapy. This position aligns Pennsylvania with the Biden-Harris administration, which has worked to push children into transgender medical procedures.
Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, told the DCNF that he’s concerned by Shapiro’s efforts to punish those who disagree with his convictions.
“These actions by Gov. Shapiro (pictured above) hinders the ability of counselors and therapists to help their patients and threaten to punish those with convictions on sexuality and gender that differ from the governor’s,” Geer said in a statement provided to the DCNF.
“Pennsylvanians who seek help in facing unwanted same-sex attractions or gender dysphoria should be free to speak with professional counselors who could help them achieve their personal goals.”
‘More Binding’ Than The Law
Perry Monastero, who spent more than five years working on behalf of the Trevor Project’s campaign to ban conversion therapy in Pennsylvania, praised the state boards’ adoption of the conversion therapy policy statements, calling them “more binding” than state law, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported in May.
“This action by the boards is more binding than if we had a state law, because the decision makers are the professionals and their own peers, so they’re the ones that are saying this is not up to standard, and they’re the ones that could impact the discipline,” Monastero said.
Monastero is one of several transgender activists that have cozy relationships with the Shapiro administration. Emails obtained by the DCNF through public records requests reveal he kept in close contact with the administration as it sought to limit how children with gender dysphoria can be treated. Shapiro’s office and the Trevor Project did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
In December 2023, representatives from the Trevor Project, including Monastero, met with the executive director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Women, Moriah Hathaway. In an email, Monastero thanked Hathaway for her support in “exploring options to more effectively address extant LGBTQ+ conversion therapy by licensed professionals in Pennsylvania.”
The inability of the Pennsylvania state legislature to pass a conversion therapy ban was highlighted at a March 2024 meeting of State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors.
During that meeting, Johanna Byrd, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Pennsylvania Chapter, noted NASW had been interested in legislative actions to ban conversion therapy but had found the legislature was “too deadlocked” and sought other avenues implement a ban, according to the published meeting minutes.
In March, Monastero reached out to Ashleigh Strange, the executive director for the Governor’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, to set up a meeting to discuss conversion therapy. The next day, Monastero sent Strange an internal document from the Trevor Project revealing a county-by-county report of alleged conversion therapy “practitioners” in Pennsylvania.
The report details how the Trevor Project “conducted a systematic search of publicly available sources” to identify individuals and organizations they claimed offered conversion therapy, noting that many of the providers were found through databases maintained by Christian organizations such as the Restored Hope Network and Focus on the Family.
The report states, “Pennsylvania is home to some of the larger faith-integrated/based organizations that employ licensed conversion therapy providers compared to other states.”
Strange mentioned her meeting with the Trevor Project as part of a weekly update to Shapiro’s LGBTQ commission, noting the administration was working with the Trevor Project to increase ways to report therapists who provide alleged conversion therapy in a March 8 email.
“We are working with the Trevor Project to amplify ways the public can report conversion ‘therapists,’” wrote Strange.
Anne Edward, Executive Director of Restored Hope Network, told the DCNF she is “offended yet not surprised” that Christian therapists are being targeted by transgender activists.
“We are offended, yet not surprised, that opponents of counseling choice are unfairly targeting our Christian counselors who respect client goals and support those who seek to walk out their faith with their bodies,” Edward said.
“This counseling reduces suicidality for minors by a whopping 50 percent according to the Williams Institute Generations data reviewed by Dr. Paul Sullins. Disturbingly, The Trevor Project is seeking to ban counseling choice and punish counselors.”
Meeting minutes from the licensing boards of Medicine, Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors, Psychology, and Osteopathic Medicine between April 8 and May 2 further show the Shapiro administration pressuring state licensing boards to eliminate so-called conversion therapy.
At an April meeting of the State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors, Jacqueline A. Wolfgang, a Pennsylvania Department of State attorney, told the board that Shapiro was “calling on” licensing boards to adopt statements warning professionals of potential board discipline for practicing conversion therapy, according to the meeting minutes.
Not every state board member voted in favor of adopting the Shapiro supported conversion therapy policy statement.
Steven Erickson, chair of the Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology, was the only member of the six person board to vote against adopting the conversion therapy policy statement.
According to the meeting minutes, Erickson asserted that the conversion therapy policy statement amounted to restricting free speech.
“Chair Erickson wanted to make it clear that the policy is a content-based restriction on speech,” the meeting minutes state.
When reached for comment, Erickson told the DCNF he is unable to make any statements about the issue because he is an active board member.
Anne Edward, executive director of Restored Hope Network — one of the Christian groups the Trevor Project highlighted in its internal report — told the DCNF that conversations between a clinician and clients are constitutionally protected speech.
“The 11th Circuit Court ruled that professional speech is constitutionally protected speech and overturned the ‘conversion therapy’ bans for minors in three states. In other words, the state should not insert itself into conversations between clinician and client, even for minors,” said Edward.
“They also acknowledged that abusive treatment was not being used, rather this was to attempt to ban speech, professional speech. We advocate for freedom of speech between client and clinician which saves lives.”
The State Board of Medicine and Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors unanimously adopted the policy statement against conversion therapy. One member of the Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted against against adopting the policy statement.
In a May 2024 press release, Shapiro praised the adoption of the conversion therapy policy statements stating, “There is no place for the harmful, dangerous practice of conversion therapy here in our Commonwealth.”
History Of Radical Transgender Activism
During his 2022 campaign for governor, Shapiro repeatedly promised to expand LGBTQ+ hate crime laws and ban so-called conversion therapy, despite a history of legislative efforts to ban conversion therapy failing to gain traction in Pennsylvania’s divided state legislature.
Since 2015, Pennsylvania has spent more than $19.8 million in taxpayer funds on pediatric sex change interventions such as puberty blockers, cross sex hormones’, and sex change surgeries, according to the PA Family Institute.
On July 27 at the Central PA Pride in Harrisburg a recording shows Shapiro telling attendees “To our trans children, I see you and I love you.”
Shapiro continued, “I’ve gone to court to protect our trans kids, and I’ll continue to stand in the town squares and town halls in every community across Pennsylvania, rural, urban and suburban, and proclaim loudly and clearly that we love all God’s children, including our trans children.”
The Shapiro administration has a portal on Pennsylvania’s Department of State website where anyone can “file a complaint against a licensed professional engaging in unprofessional or harmful conduct like conversion therapy.”
Shifting Definitions
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a physician and board chairman of the medical watchdog group Do No Harm, told the DCNF that it’s outrageous that Pennsylvania state boards are denying children the opportunity to resolve their gender dysphoria without dangerous, life-altering medical procedures.
“Conversion therapy for gay individuals is known to be unacceptable practice. Attempts to deal with confused children who believe that they need to take medications and even surgeries to alter their physical appearance is a whole other circumstance, and the Pennsylvania medical boards should not deny these children the opportunity for proper care,” Goldfarb said.
Historically “conversion therapy” has been used to describe interventions aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation. However, the term has been broadened since the mid-2010’s to include any efforts to change a person’s “gender identity.” Under this expanded definition, used by the Shapiro administration, the Trevor Project and the Biden White House, activists view helping a child resolve gender distress as an attempt to “convert” their “gender identity.”
Transgender ideology includes the belief that a person’s sex can be different from their “gender identity,” which the World Professional Association of Transgender Health defines as “a person’s deeply felt, internal, intrinsic sense of their own gender.” It’s a rejection of long-established scientific understanding of biology that there are only two sexes based on the fact there are only two types of reproductive cells — sperm and ova.
The very concept of “gender identity” creates the possibility of changing one’s sex — a biological impossibility — through medical interventions, therefore creating a demand for medical sex reassignment interventions.
“The state of Pennsylvania medical boards are confusing two separate situations,” Goldfarb said. “They have conflated an attempt to provide psychotherapy to explore the reasons for gender dysphoria, particularly when it occurs in a rapid onset fashion, with those attempting to change the sexual orientation of gay individuals. These two situations are distinct, and it is outrageous that the state medical boards in Pennsylvania have decided to deny children the opportunity to explore their gender confusion, which we know resolves itself spontaneously in up to 90% of children if not subjected to so-called gender, affirming care.”
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Megan Brock is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Gov. Josh Shapiro” by Josh Shapiro.
