When are the politics of the Republican House majority more important than the well-being of the children of New Hampshire? When it comes to children who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

I am incredibly disappointed that the bill to ban conversion therapy (the so-called therapy for children who are GLB or T, which attempts to force them to become straight) is dead.

The House committee that first discussed the bill, HB 1661, voted unanimously to support the bill. The full House voted overwhelmingly to support it, 229-99. The Senate, after making a few clarifying amendments, including stating more clearly constitutional protections for religious rights, voted, 16-8, to again support the ban on this dangerous therapy.

Yet even with such strong support, the committee of conference, the end-of-session group appointed to resolve differences between versions of bills, killed it. The two House Republican committee members would not discuss their differences to see if compromise language could be reached, despite the repeated offers of the committee’s senators to work on a compromise.

Essentially, the House Republicans said we don’t care about the welfare of the LGBT children of our state; it’s our way or the highway. So the bill died.

Numerous reports and studies have shown that so-called conversion therapy can increase the incidence of severe depression and suicide in the LGBT children subjected to it.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report, “Ending Conversion Therapy,” states: “Interventions aimed at a fixed outcome, such as gender conformity or heterosexual orientation, including those aimed at changing gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, are coercive, can be harmful, and should not be part of behavioral health treatment.” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013b; American Psychological Association, 2010; National Association of Social Workers, 2008)

Again, the House vote to ban conversion therapy was better than 2 to 1. The Senate vote to ban conversion therapy was 2 to 1.

What happened?

In this case, what the anti-LGBT Cornerstone could not do during the more public part of the legislative process it achieved by influencing its final moments.

The fact that killing this bill extends the rights of licensed therapists to practice a damaging intervention on vulnerable youth does not seem to upset them very much at all. And that’s a shame.

(Rep. Ed Butler represents Carroll County District 7.)