Michael Gold is reporting for The New York Times New York is now one of 14 states and Washington, D.C. to ban so-called conversion therapy for minors. The state Legislature voted overwhelmingly this month to bar mental health professionals from working to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, a practice long discredited by the medical establishment. The Legislature also this month passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or Genda, which would add gender identity as a protected class under the state’s discrimination and hate crimes laws. The bills were the first pieces of LGBT-specific legislation to pass the Senate since lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage in 2011. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said he would sign both bills. “So-called LGBTQ conversion therapy is a fraudulent practice that has done untold harm to too many young people,” Cuomo said in a statement. An estimated 698,000 LGBT adults in the United States have received conversion therapy, according to research by the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law, which studies LGBT issues. About half of them underwent conversion therapy as teenagers. Read the full story in The New York Times.