"Gay Cure" therapy was banned in California on Sunday after Governor Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill that won't allow therapists to treat teenagers in order to make them straight.

Brown signed the Senate Bill 1172 by Democratic Senator Ted Lieu forbidding mental health providers to give teenagers therapies that seek "to change behaviours or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."

Governor Brown wrote Sunday on his Facebook page that such 'therapies' are non-scientific and "have driven young people to depression and suicide." The bill draw positive and negative reactions from Facebook users.

The author of the bill, Lieu, told NBC News that "An entire house of medicine has rejected gay conversion therapy. Not only does it not work but it is harmful. Patients who go through this have gone through guilt and shame, and some have committed suicide."

California became the first state in the country to ban the controversial therapy practice. The law will go into effect January 1, 2013.

Supporters of the bill call gay cure therapy "psychological abuse" and say the practice puts young people at higher risk of depression and suicide.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights organization, lobbied the Governor intensely to sign the therapy ban, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Governor Brown today reaffirmed what medical and mental health organizations have made clear: Efforts to change minors' sexual orientation are not therapy, they are the relics of prejudice and abuse that have inflicted untold harm on young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians," said Clarissa Filgioun, Equality California board president.

On Brown's Facebook page the response echoed this sentiment.

"Thank you Governor Brown. we are proud that you support sane mental health care that helps instead of hurting people," wrote user Caroline Theiss Aird.

Opponents to the bill claim the regulation of therapy is the responsability of medical boards and not politicians and that the bill reduced the rights of parents to make choices for their children.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays was one of the organizations that opposed the bill and called it unconstitutional.

"As parents of gays and ex-gays, we are ashamed of your willingness to take action against parents, children, and the family in order to support gay activists," the group said in an open letter to Lieu in August. "California is not a socialist state and our children do not belong to the government, subject to the ideology of the state over the objections of their parents."

Some users on Facebook criticized Brown's decision as well.

"Where is the dislike button. When should government be allowed to tell a parent what is best for their child. I am sure there are a lot of abuse cases but when government gets between a family, that is just wrong," one user Aaron Juarez said.

"Jerry Brown has gone to far! They have no right to tell a parent how to raise their children or what counseling to seek. I recommend parents seek counseling from their Pastors provided those Pastors follow the Bible and Christ totally and don't support homosexuality in any way like some mainstream Churches do!" another Facebook user Robert Taylor wrote.