Hate group lawyer: Michigan’s conversion therapy ban forces gay kids to be 'transgender'​

Greg Baylor, the senior counsel to the right-wing nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, falsely claimed that Michigan's proposed ban on conversion therapy forces kids to become transgender. Baylor also compared the legislation to the LGBTQIA+ policies in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"The overwhelming majority of children experiencing gender dysphoria will align their minds with their bodies if they are just allowed to go through puberty without so-called gender-affirming interventions. And I think it bears noting that the majority of them will eventually identify as gay or lesbian," Baylor said, offering no scientific evidence to support his claim.

Conversion therapy is the process of changing "same-sex attractions or an individual’s gender expression with the specific aim to promote heterosexuality as a preferable outcome," according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). The practice has been established by medical experts as torture and ineffective.

READ MORE: Wisconsin Republicans strike down state ban on LGBTQ+ conversion therapy

"So it's actually fair to say that the pathway that this bill would foster is essentially converting gay kids into transgender kids, and this is the approach taken by none other than, and I'm, I'm not trying to be provocative here, but taken by none other than the Islamic Republic of Iran," Baylor added, "that fear that this bill will cause more and more children to be channeled down a pathway that won't alleviate their suffering and will actually make things worse for them."

The American Iranian Council explained in 2021 that "Iran has maintained and pursued policies which condemn and harshly punish homosexuality, a practice widely, and appropriately, criticized as a human rights violation. However, this government persecution does not apply equally to transgender individuals; gender reassignment surgery is legal in Iran, and formal gender recognition is supported by the Iranian theocracy."

German news outlet DW further noted that same year that "Iran's state subsidizes gender reassignment surgery while prohibiting homosexuality. A long and continuing history of activism has helped transgender people bolster their community despite the discrimination they face."

Watch Baylor below or at this link.

READ MORE: 'People have left the lifestyle': Pro-spanking Republican says conversion therapy ban enables 'pedophilia'