HOST INTRO:
ALI: The White House took a step in support of L-G-B-T people this week. On Wednesday night, Senior advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, writing on behalf of the Barack Obama, posted a petition on the White House website. It calls for the end of the so-called conversion therapy – that’s where therapists try to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
ANJULI: The petition is motivated in part by the December suicide of Leelah Alcorn. She was a 17-year-old transgendered youth who said in a suicide note that she killed herself because her parents forced her into conversion.
ALI: I spoke to Dr. Jack Drescher, he is a psychiatrist who specializes in the mental health of L-G-B-T communities. I asked him about the kinds of patients who end up undergoing so-called conversion therapies.