Google Pulls Conversion Therapy App Following Outcry From Hoylman, Advocacy Groups
March 28, 2019
This comes after 141,806 people called on Google to remove the app on Change.org
Conversion therapy is now illegal in the state of New York after Senator Hoylman’s bill to ban the practice was signed into law by Governor Cuomo in January
Google’s refusal to remove the app cost them their endorsement from the Human Rights Campaign’s 2019 Corporate Equality Index
NEW YORK - Senator Brad Hoylman (D/WF-Manhattan), the only openly LGBTQ member of the New York State Senate, released the following statement in response to Google’s decision to remove the Living Hope Ministries gay conversion application from their Play Store:
Senator Hoylman said: “It took months of activism by Truth Wins Out and Change.org, and today Human Rights Campaign, to get Google to pull a conversion therapy app. I called Google out in the press about this in January. They took no action. Credit is due for finally acting—but Google now needs a serious internal audit examining why it delayed so long.
LGBTQ conversion therapy is child abuse. You don’t take months to pull down a conversion therapy app unless something is deeply broken in your culture. Something is broken at Google. It’s on them to fix it—the LGBTQ community is watching.”
Google’s New York City headquarters are located in Chelsea, Manhattan within Senator Hoylman’s district. They are planning to add an additional 7,000 jobs over the next several years. Conversion therapy is now illegal in the state of New York after Senator Hoylman’s bill to ban the practice was signed into law by Governor Cuomo in January.
With Senator Hoylman’s bill signed into law, mental health professionals are now prohibited from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with patients under the age of 18. Those who engage in sexual orientation change efforts with minors can now be charged with professional misconduct, giving the State Education Department the ability to suspend or revoke a professional’s license to practice or fine them up to $10,000.