Jonni Skinner recently went viral for confronting California lawmakers about the harms of his childhood medical transition. The young man is now speaking out against a bill he believes could prevent vulnerable minors from receiving proper counseling. Skinner testified last week against Senate Bill 934 at a California Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener sponsored the controversial legislation. The bill would allow individuals to seek damages through malpractice lawsuits for conversion therapy. Wiener’s office defines this therapy to include any efforts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Critics argue the legislation is too broadly written. The California Family Council warned it could expose therapists to lawsuits simply for discussing sexuality and gender identity.
Skinner shared his personal story of growing up in a religious Michigan family. He was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at a young age. He struggled with feeling different from other boys and faced bullying for having stereotypical feminine interests.
Skinner carried shame as he reached puberty, fearing he might grow up to be gay or effeminate. He said he found the idea of gender transition appealing after watching online influencers. He was eventually referred to a gender therapist and an endocrinologist.
These medical professionals affirmed his feelings and suggested transitioning would help him feel normal. "The medical and mental health providers didn't bother to ask why I felt the way I did," Skinner told Wiener at the hearing.
"They poisoned my body with blockers and hormones, arresting my puberty and messing with my development," Skinner continued. "The result is I'm a 23-year-old gay man who's never had an orgasm and may never experience one. Let that sink in."
His mother initially resisted the idea of making permanent changes to his body. Skinner said medical professionals convinced her that his dysphoria originated in the womb. They claimed transitioning with hormones was the only viable solution to his problems.
The experimental drugs eventually left him with fainting spells, painful muscle spasms, and urinary problems. A new endocrinologist suggested he stop taking the medications in 2023. Skinner began questioning his previous doctors after reading leaked internal reports from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
He explained that those reports revealed serious doubts about the science behind these treatments. "And I had found that there was, you know, no — low quality to no evidence to doing this to me," Skinner told Fox News Digital.
He eventually stopped the treatments but still suffers from lasting physical complications. Skinner believes California's attempt to target conversion therapy will actually end up harming gay people. "For me, it did very much act as a chemical conversion therapy," he stated.
Skinner argued that therapists must be allowed to explore the underlying causes of a minor’s distress. "In all those years, if one therapist would have just talked with me about the origins of my distress, instead of just affirming me and suggesting, you know, further medical intervention is the only solution to me, perhaps I could have been spared much of what I'm suffering with today," he said.
He warned that SB 934 would criminalize therapists for asking those vital questions. "They're not able to, under this bill, question gender identity or really delve with these patients into the underlying causes of their dysphoria," Skinner explained. "That would be considered conversion therapy under SB 934."
Wiener defended the legislation in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Conversion therapy is psychological torture and quack science that does nothing but harm vulnerable young people," Wiener said. He claimed the bill will not penalize good faith explorations of a patient’s gender identity.
The bill is currently pending in the California Senate after passing one committee. It is scheduled for another hearing on April 20. This legislation follows a recent landmark Supreme Court decision overturning a similar ban in Colorado on First Amendment grounds.