Royal Oak, Michigan, city commission voted this week to ban conversion therapy on minors, just weeks after the neighboring community of Madison Heights. The two cities are the fifth and sixth in Michigan to ban the harmful and discredited practice.
“We’re going to do everything within our power to protect our residents,” City Commissioner Kyle DuBuc said in the Royal Oak Tribune.
Madison Heights City Council voted July 27 to ban conversion therapy for minors, according to Madison-Park News.
“I just want to protect youths from any coercive influences that might interfere with them finding themselves in a free and healthy manner,” said Madison Heights City Councilman David Soltis. “This is narrowly tailored to prevent this clinical practice, but it’s not meant to interfere with the beliefs of faith communities. It just protects the youth, allowing them to decide what kind of therapies they want and making that decision on their own. It’s protecting the individual minor.”
Born Perfect is the leading campaign to end conversion therapy. We are survivors, lawyers, and policy experts working together to protect LGBTQ+ people nationally and around the globe. Born Perfect is a program of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
In a demonstration of bipartisan unity, Rep. Kim Banta has become one of four Republicans currently cosponsoring efforts in Kentucky to ban conversion therapy.
This week, Banta penned an op-ed in The River City News in support of protecting Kentucky LGBTQ youth from abuse by mental health providers. Banta wrote:
As a Republican, the Mental Health Protection Act has my full support because it deliberately protects the rights laid out in our constitution: including freedom of religion. The bill proposed specifically prevents only state-licensed providers from engaging in conversion therapy with minors. This bill does not restrict religious leaders from counseling youth and families on this subject. It does not criminalize, or even prevent, Christian pastors and other religious leaders from discussing the morality and church teachings surrounding same-sex attraction or gender identity. Nor would it prevent parents or guardians from having similar conversations with their kids or grandkids. What this bill does is protect families from predatory therapists who would seek financial gain with false hope. It protects the safety and well-being of Kentucky’s children.
As a former principal, I know that adolescents struggle with so much in their lives. Shaming, blaming, or telling them they can change something that comes so naturally to them is proven to be emotionally and mentally harmful – especially when it comes in the guise of state-sanctioned medical advice. I have also read the personal accounts of kids who went through this legal form of child torture, these kids indicating they were physically and emotionally abused by people who take advantage of parents in a time of need. Just as it is our responsibility to help fellow Kentuckians get through the COVID-19 crisis, we have a responsibility to help struggling Kentucky kids through a much more personal and internal crisis of their own.
Banta’s op-ed reflects values of family and liberty, of which we invite much more, throughout the Republican Party.
Banta joins Republican state Sens. Alice Forgy Kerr, Julie Raque Adams, and state Rep. Jason Nemes, alongside more than 30 Democrats, in opting to put the health and safety of LGBTQ youths and their parents before partisan politics.
Born Perfect is the leading campaign to end conversion therapy. We are survivors, lawyers, and policy experts working together to protect LGBTQ+ people nationally and around the globe. Born Perfect is a program of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
In a first for Kentucky, a legislative committee will consider a ban on conversion therapy at an informational hearing Aug. 25, when survivors, LGBTQ-affirming clergy, and a bipartisan array of allies make their case to the state legislature’s Interim Joint Licensing and Occupations Committee. Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky is leading the educational campaign, with help from state and national organizations and Born Perfect.
The remarkable success of the Kentucky campaign is a testament to the growing bipartisan support for protecting youth from these harmful practices. In this polarized political era, the national campaign to stop this public health crisis is not only the single most successful legislative effort in the LGBTQ movement, but one of the few bright spots showing that politicians on different sides of the aisle can still come together to address important social problems.
The two pending bills in Kentucky would protect minors from nearly 70 known licensed therapists who practice conversion therapy in the state. The bills are sponsored by Democratic Rep. Lisa Willner and conservative Christian Republican Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, and supported by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. The legislation would ban conversion therapy by licensed health care providers against children and also against certain adults who are mentally or physically impaired. The ban also would prohibit public funding for conversion therapy.
Born Perfect is the leading campaign to end conversion therapy. We are survivors, lawyers, and policy experts working together to protect LGBTQ+ people nationally and around the globe. Born Perfect is a program of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
Conversion therapy survivor Shaneel Lal told New Zealand media this week that that New Zealand has “become complacent” after marriage equality in failing to ban conversion therapy.
Lal, who is co-founder of New Zealand’s Conversion Therapy Action Group, renewed his call for a national ban.
“As politicians it is their duty to alleviate the collective suffering of their people. And by keeping this practice legal, they’re keeping torture legal. “Things have changed and so should we.”
Born Perfect is the leading campaign to end conversion therapy. We are survivors, lawyers, and policy experts working together to protect LGBTQ+ people nationally and around the globe. Born Perfect is a program of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
The West St. Paul, Minnesota, City Council has approved the first reading of a proposed conversion-therapy ban. The proposal awaits a second reading and public hearing, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
While Minnesota has no state ban, four other cities in the state have banned conversion therapy for minors.
Born Perfect is the leading campaign to end conversion therapy. We are survivors, lawyers, and policy experts working together to protect LGBTQ+ people nationally and around the globe. Born Perfect is a program of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
Openly gay state Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, joined North Tonawanda Alderman-at-Large Austin Tylec in calling upon State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, to explain his donation to the New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation, an anti-LGBTQ group that supports conversion therapy.
In response, NYFRF defended Ortt, who also put out a statement disclaiming any intent to oppose equality for LGBTQ people, claiming that he supported the group only for its anti-abortion mission and not for its opposition to LGBTQ people:
“Sen. Ortt supports the rights of all New Yorkers to live their lives free of discrimination, including individuals in the LGBTQ community. Using his support of pro-life values to insinuate otherwise is plainly wrong. Senator Ortt respects people with different values and beliefs.”
The city council declined to take further action, according to the Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, a local weekly newspaper.
Born Perfect is the leading campaign to end conversion therapy. We are survivors, lawyers, and policy experts working together to protect LGBTQ+ people nationally and around the globe. Born Perfect is a program of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR).
