HB1876 • 2026

RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH.

Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor: TAM, AMATO, GRANDINETTI, ILAGAN, LA CHICA, MARTEN, PERRUSO
Last action: 2026-02-20
Official status: Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on JHA with Representative(s) Alcos, Garcia, Gedeon, Matsumoto voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Pierick voting no (1) and Representative(s) Quinlan excused (1).
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The bill's effectiveness depends on a future court ruling.

Bill to Ban Conversion Therapy

This bill aims to ban conversion therapy practices targeting individuals under the age of twenty-five, including advertising such services, while allowing talk therapy in the form of pure speech.

What This Bill Does

Expands the current law to prohibit conversion therapy on people under 25 years old.
Prohibits the advertisement of conversion therapy for those under 25.
Exempts talk therapy that involves only talking from the ban.

Who It Names or Affects

People who are licensed to provide professional counseling services
Individuals under the age of twenty-five

Terms To Know

Conversion therapy: Practices or treatments that aim to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Aversive techniques: Unpleasant methods used to alter behavior, such as electric shocks or deprivation of food and liquids.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill will only take effect if the Supreme Court overturns a specific case (Chiles v. Salazar).

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

HD1

Hawaii published version HD1

Plain English: The amendment changes the age limit for conversion therapy restrictions from eighteen to twenty-five and adds an exemption for talk therapy in the form of pure speech, which will take effect if a Supreme Court decision overturns Chiles v. Salazar.

Raises the age limit for prohibiting conversion therapy from eighteen to twenty-five years old.
Adds an exception that allows licensed professionals to engage in talk therapy as pure speech without it being considered conversion therapy, even after the Supreme Court's decision.

The amendment will only take effect if and when the Supreme Court overturns Chiles v. Salazar.
Details about how the exemption for 'talk therapy in the form of pure speech' will be implemented are not fully explained.

Bill History

2026-02-20 H
Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on JHA with Representative(s) Alcos, Garcia, Gedeon, Matsumoto voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Pierick voting no (1) and Representative(s) Quinlan excused (1).
2026-02-20 H
Reported from CPC (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 687-26) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to JHA.
2026-02-10 H
The committee on CPC recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 10 Ayes: Representative(s) Matayoshi, Grandinetti, Chun, Ilagan, Ichiyama, Kong, Lowen, Marten, Tam; Ayes with reservations: Representative(s) Iwamoto; 1 Noes: Representative(s) Pierick; and Excused: none.
2026-02-06 H
Bill scheduled to be heard by CPC on Tuesday, 02-10-26 2:00PM in House conference room 329 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
2026-01-26 H
Referred to CPC, JHA, referral sheet 2
2026-01-26 H
Introduced and Pass First Reading.
2026-01-23 H
Pending introduction.

Official Summary Text

RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH.
Conversion Therapy; Sexual Orientation; Gender Identity; Talk Therapy; Age
Amends the existing prohibition on conversion therapy by prohibiting the practice on persons under the age of twenty-five and the advertisement of such practice. Explicitly provides that talk therapy in the form of pure speech is exempt from the prohibition on conversion therapy. Takes effect upon the certification by the Attorney General that the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned the holding in Chiles v. Salazar, 116 F.4th 1178 (10th Cir. 2024). Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

HB1876

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1876

THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026

STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating
to mental health
.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

����
SECTION
1.
�
The legislature finds that conversion
therapy includes a variety of techniques that seek to change a patient's sexual
orientation by changing patient behaviors or familial, romantic, and other
relationships.
�
In the context of gender
identity, conversion therapy includes efforts to change demeanor, actions, and
dress associated with gender roles and to suppress gender nonconforming
behaviors for the purpose of changing gender identity.

����
The
legislature further finds that the professional consensus acknowledges that
variations in sexual orientation and gender identity are normal,
nonpathological parts of human identity, and that efforts to change these
nonconforming identities, whether carried out through aversive or nonaversive
techniques, are ineffective.
�

Furthermore, every major professional health care association in the
country agrees that conversion therapy is not just ineffective and unnecessary
but can be harmful to the patient.
�
Upon
hearing that their sexual orientation or gender identity can and needs to be
fixed, patients may experience chronic feelings of shame and guilt that
compound into long-term emotional distress and lower levels of educational and
vocational achievement.
�
Conversion
therapy efforts are associated with increased isolation, self-hatred,
internalized stigma, depression, anxiety, and suicidality.
�
For religious patients, conversion therapy
inflicts additional harm by distancing them from their faith institutions,
worsening family relationships, and undermining their faith.

����
The
legislature also finds that, pursuant to its longstanding authority to protect
the residents of the State from substandard care, Act 13, Session Laws of
Hawaii 2018, and Act 157, Session Laws of Hawaii 2019, were enacted to restrain
the use of the ineffective and harmful practice of conversion therapy in the
context of both sexual orientation and gender identity.

����
However,
the legislature acknowledges that the Supreme Court of the United States is
anticipated to announce an exemption in the case of
Chiles v. Salazar
,
No. 24-539 (U.S.), which involves a counselor challenging Colorado's
prohibition on conversion therapy on the basis of protected free speech.

����
Accordingly,
the purpose of this Act is to provide for the conditional amendment of the
existing prohibition on conversion therapy, which shall take effect only upon a
final decision by the Supreme Court of the United States overturning the
decision in
Chiles v. Salazar
, 116 F.4th 1178 (10th Cir. 2024).
�
The amendment provides an exemption for
professionals engaged in talk therapy in the form of pure speech from the
prohibition on conversion therapy, while explicitly maintaining a ban on
aversive techniques.

����
SECTION
2
.
�
Section 453J-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is
amended to read as follows:

����
"
�453J-1
�

Conversion therapy prohibited; advertising prohibited.
�
(a)
�
No
person who is licensed to provide professional counseling shall:

����
(1)
�
Engage in or
attempt to engage in conversion therapy on a person [
under eighteen years of
age
]; or

����
(2)
�
Advertise the
offering of conversion therapy on a person [
under eighteen years of age
].

����
(b)
�

Any person who is licensed to provide professional counseling who
engages in or attempts to engage in the offering of conversion therapy on a
person [
under eighteen years of age
] shall be subject to disciplinary
action by the appropriate professional licensing authority.

����
(c)
�
For purposes of this section:

����
"Advertise" means a
communication made by or on behalf of a person who is licensed to provide
professional counseling, made for the purpose of inducing or promoting a
professional counseling relationship in which conversion therapy will be
undertaken [
on a person under the age of eighteen
].
�
"Advertise" includes oral, written,
graphic, or pictorial statements or representations, including those made
through any electronic or print medium.

����
"Aversive techniques" means
techniques that utilize unpleasant stimuli to induce changes in behavior, such
as electric shocks, deprivation of food and liquids, chemically induced nausea,
or other physical interventions.

����
"Conversion therapy" means
any practices or treatments that seek to change an individual's sexual
orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender
expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or
feelings toward individuals of the same gender.

����
"Conversion
therapy" includes aversive techniques.

����
"Conversion therapy" [
shall
]

does
not include [
counseling
]
:

����
(1)
�
Talk therapy in the form of pure speech;
and

����
(2)
�
Counseling
that provides assistance to
a person undergoing gender transition, or counseling that provides acceptance,
support, and understanding of a person or facilitates a person's coping, social
support, and identity exploration and development, including sexual
orientation-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or
unsafe sexual practices, as long as such counseling does not seek to change an
individual's sexual orientation or gender identity.

����
"Person who is licensed to
provide professional counseling" means a person who performs counseling as
part of the person's professional training, including a physician, especially
one practicing psychiatry, licensed pursuant to chapter 453; psychologist
licensed pursuant to chapter 465; nurse licensed pursuant to chapter 457;
social worker licensed pursuant to chapter 467E; licensed mental health
counselor licensed pursuant to chapter 453D; or licensed marriage and family
therapist licensed pursuant to chapter 451J."

����
SECTION 3.
�
Statutory material to be repealed is
bracketed and stricken.
�
New statutory
material is underscored.

����
SECTION 4.
�
This Act shall take effect upon its approval;
provided that the attorney general certifies to the revisor of statutes that
the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned the holding of
Chiles
v. Salazar
, 116 F.4th 1178 (10th Cir. 2024).

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Conversion
Therapy; Sexual Orientation; Gender Identity; Talk Therapy; Age

Description:

Amends
the existing prohibition on conversion therapy by prohibiting the practice on
persons of all ages and the advertisement of such practice.
�
Explicitly provides that talk therapy in the
form of pure speech is exempt from the prohibition on conversion therapy.
�
Takes effect upon the certification by the
Attorney General that the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned the
holding in
Chiles v. Salazar
, 116 F.4th 1178 (10th Cir. 2024).

The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.