New York Laws
Article 131-A - Definitions of Professional Misconduct Applicable to Physicians, Physician's Assistants and Specialist's Assistants
6531-A - Additional Definition of Professional Misconduct; Mental Health Professionals.

§ 6531-a. Additional definition of professional misconduct; mental
health professionals. 1. Definitions. For the purposes of this section:

a. "Mental health professional" means a person subject to the
provisions of article one hundred thirty-one of this title.

b. "Sexual orientation change efforts" (i) means any practice by a
mental health professional that seeks to change an individual's sexual
orientation, including, but not limited to, efforts to change behaviors,
gender identity, or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual
or romantic attractions or feelings towards individuals of the same sex;
and (ii) shall not include counseling for a person seeking to transition
from one gender to another, or psychotherapies that: (A) provide
acceptance, support and understanding of patients or the facilitation of
patients' coping, social support, and identity exploration and
development, including sexual orientation-neutral interventions to
prevent or address unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices; and (B)
do not seek to change sexual orientation.

2. It shall be professional misconduct for a mental health
professional to engage in sexual orientation change efforts upon any
patient under the age of eighteen years, and any mental health
professional found guilty of such misconduct under the procedures
prescribed in title two-A of article two of the public health law shall
be subject to the penalties prescribed in section two hundred thirty-a
of the public health law, as added by chapter six hundred six of the
laws of nineteen hundred ninety-one.

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