Last week, Minnesota state Sen. Scott Dibble (D-Minneapolis) was putting together an amendment on a highly personal issue: conversion therapy.

Dibble is an openly gay man, and he grew up in an evangelical background. He used to “pray” that one day he’d wake up straight. That’s the seductive claim behind conversion therapy – that queerness is something that can be fixed or removed.

There’s no evidence that conversion therapy can turn gay and trans people into something else. There is, however, plenty of evidence that it can lead to shame, depression, anxiety, and suicide – especially among younger patients. Today, it’s roundly dismissed by the medical, psychological, and psychiatric fields as an incredibly harmful pseudo-treatment.

Dibble’s amendment would outlaw practicing it on minors. A similar version has already passed in the Democrat-led House. But he was surprised by two Republican colleagues who not only offered support, but their own versions of the amendment. One was Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake), who didn’t respond to interview requests. The other was Scott Jensen (R-Chaska.)

Jensen, a family doctor in Watertown, says his feelings on Dibble’s amendment are complicated. His feelings on conversion therapy – “coercive, aversive” treatments, as he calls them – are not.

“It’s personally and professionally problematic for me,” he says.

Jensen seldom has trouble opposing the rest of his party on issues he cares about, and this is one of them. But he worries Dibble’s amendment may be too far-reaching. He wants to make sure the freedom and openness of talk therapy can be protected while outlawing attempts to sexually reorient Minnesota’s queer youth.

Dibble says Jensen and Pratt assured him that if they took this on, they could probably bring somewhere between four and 10 Republicans on board.

But in the heart of a debate on the amendment, Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R-Nisswa) called for a recess and summoned his fellow Republicans to a meeting. "I knew this probably wasn’t good,” Dibble says.

According to Dibble, who says he got a recap from trusted sources, a half-dozen Republicans said if Dibble’s amendment passed, they’d vote against the gigantic health and human services budget bill it was attached to – some $15 billion's worth of legislation.

In the end, Dibble’s amendment was shot down 34-30, with no Republicans voting in favor – not even Pratt or Jensen.

“I was surprised and a little disappointed, quite honestly,” Dibble says.