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Indiana Gov. Holcomb signed SB 350, voiding local bans on conversion therapy for minors

On May 1, 2023, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Enrolled Act 350 into law, barring any Indiana city, town, or county from regulating behavioral health and human-services practitioners licensed or certified under IC 25-23.6. The measure, added as IC 25-23.6-2-8.5, was authored in response to local ordinances in Indianapolis, Bloomington, and elsewhere that had prohibited licensed practitioners from performing conversion therapy on minors, and it voids those bans and bars future local protections. Indiana maintains no statewide ban on the practice.

Jurisdiction
Indiana
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana

Abuses documented

Actors

On May 1, 2023, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Enrolled Act No. 350 into law as Public Law 111-2023, adding IC 25-23.6-2-8.5 to the state code. The provision bars any Indiana "unit" — a city, town, or county — from regulating behavioral health and human-services practitioners who are licensed, certified, or exempt from licensure under IC 25-23.6, a category that includes marriage and family therapists, social workers, mental-health counselors, and addiction counselors.

The bill was authored in direct response to local ordinances in Indianapolis, Bloomington, and other municipalities that had barred licensed practitioners from performing conversion therapy on minors. By removing local governments' authority to regulate these professions, SEA 350 voids those existing ordinances and forecloses any future local conversion-therapy protections. Because Indiana has no statewide ban on conversion therapy, the law eliminates the only layer of legal protection LGBTQ youth in affected localities had against the practice. National advocacy organizations including the Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project publicly opposed the bill and condemned Holcomb for signing it.

Why we recorded this

Local governments had used their lawful authority to shield LGBTQ minors from conversion therapy, a practice every major medical and mental-health body rejects as harmful and ineffective. Indiana's SB 350 stripped cities, towns, and counties of the power to regulate state-licensed behavioral-health practitioners, voiding existing municipal bans on conversion therapy and foreclosing future ones while the state maintains no ban of its own. This archive records when a government removes an existing civil-rights protection for a vulnerable group by preempting the only level of government that had acted to protect it.

Sources

  1. Senate Enrolled Act No. 350 (2023) — enrolled bill text — Indiana General Assembly primary accessed July 16, 2026
  2. Human Rights Campaign condemns Indiana Governor Holcomb for signing SB 350 — Human Rights Campaign secondary accessed July 16, 2026
  3. The Trevor Project opposes Indiana bill undermining LGBTQ youth protections against conversion therapy — The Trevor Project secondary accessed July 16, 2026
  4. Senate passes bill inspired by conversion therapy dispute — Indiana Capital Chronicle secondary accessed July 16, 2026

See also