Ralph Shearer Northam (born September 13, 1959) is an American politician and physician serving as the 73rd Governor of Virginia since January 13, 2018. A pediatric neurologist by occupation, he was an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1984 to 1992. Northam, a member of the Democratic Party, served as the 40th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018 prior to winning the governorship against Republican nominee Ed Gillespie in the 2017 election.
Virginia becomes 20th state to ban conversion therapy for minors
Virginia is the first state in the South, and the 20th overall, to prohibit "conversion therapy," the debunked practice of trying to change a young person's sexual orientation or gender identity. "Conversion therapy sends the harmful message that there is something wrong with who you are," Gov.
Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday. "This discriminatory practice has been widely discredited in studies and can have lasting effects on our youth, putting them at a greater risk of
