Prohibiting Prayer in Australia

Conversion therapy -- the use of psychological or spiritual interventions to attempt to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity -- has proved controversial in the U.S. It is banned in the case of minors in some twenty American states. The District of Columbia bans such therapies completely, regardless of age. Such laws could be viewed as government support for the LGBTQ+ cause, but they do not need to be seen entirely cynically. They could well reflect a desire to protect the vulnerable from paying for treatments that legislators consider to be bogus.