Proposed Law Banning Conversion Therapy Named After Homophobe VP Pence

A New York legislator is pushing back against U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s bigotry in a cunning way — by naming legislation banning conversion therapy, a practice Pence has advocated for, after him.

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Patrick Burke, a Democrat legislator in Erie County, has named his proposed law the Prevention of Emotional Neglect and Childhood Endangerment — the law’s acronym being PENCE.

“Mike Pence is probably going to have the most power of any vice president in the history of our country and he has openly advocated for conversion therapy,” Burke told reporters. “I want that to sink into people. I want them to realize it’s a serious issue of abuse of children. Flatly, whether they are gay or not, it’s abuse. Then you have a man who is going to have enormous power over all of us, who advocates for it.”

Conversion therapy attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual through invasive psychological treatments or counseling.

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Burke has pushed the issue in the last two years and is now hoping to build more public support.

He has gotten support from Republican Majority Leader Joseph Lorigo, but the elected official still says the proposal is superfluous as conversion therapy is not used in Erie County.

“Like Legislator Burke, I believe conversion therapy is dangerous and inappropriate. It also has no basis in legitimate science. As a result, and as Legislator Burke acknowledges in his proposed law, there has been no use of this technique anywhere in Erie County. I am 100 percent opposed to this brand of ‘therapy,’ but I am also opposed to attempting to legislate every single issue we can think of, especially a law banning something that has never actually happened in Erie County," stated Lorigo.