Photo credit: Benson Kua
Racine’s city council recently voted 11-3 to ban conversion therapy for minors. Then, on Thursday, July 18, Mayor Cory Mason signed a Conversion Ban Proclamation making Racine the sixth local Wisconsin jurisdiction to do so, joining Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, Cudahy and Shorewood. City Council members Sandy Weidner, Carrie Glenn and Henry Perez cast their “nay” votes against the measure, in other words, for the use of conversion therapy to change LGBTQ children straight.
Sadly, it needs to be reiterated that the concept of conversion therapy is long debunked with no scientific support and condemned by major medical and psychological associations. In fact, many of its former leading proponents (some of whom turned out to be gay themselves) have apologized to those they harmed by the practice. Conversion therapy has been shown to adversely affect its victims, sometimes leading them to suicide. And, beyond being a fake solution to a non-existing problem, it is also a flimflam scam to bilk parents and enrich those who practice it.
Like the infamous local aldermen Bob Donovan and Mark Borkowski who voted against the ban here in Milwaukee, Racine’s trio of nays ignored the wealth of scientific proof of not only the ineffectiveness of conversion therapy but also of its proven detrimental impact on those who are subjected to it. Ironically, one of them, Alderwoman Weidner, claimed she opposed the ban because it would abrogate parental rights. “I’m not going to deprive them of their ability to be a parent,” she said. It’s an interesting argument that relies on the notion that parenting, good or bad, is sacrosanct as an American value beyond the reach of government oversight (except when it comes to immigrant child separation, of course).
It reminds me of the what-dya-gonna-do shrugging off of 30-40,000 guns deaths annually because of the Second Amendment. And actually, the ban only applies to those pseudo-counselors who charge for the service. Parents remain free to abuse their children and clergy can still try to exorcize the gay away. Speaking of exorcisms, a congressional chaplain (a Jesuit, no less) just tried to cast the “spirits of darkness” from the U.S. House. It didn’t work there, either. In any case, mercifully, in deference to the common good and public health, intelligence prevailed in Racine.
Wisconsin does have a bill pending to ban conversion therapy statewide. State senators Tim Carpenter and LaTonya Johnson, as well as state Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa, among many others (all Democrats, btw), introduced it in March of this year. But, while 18 states and the District of Columbia have successfully banned conversion therapy, the Republicans’ gerrymandered grip on our state Assembly makes this attempt symbolic at best. However, the more municipalities and counties pass local bans, the greater the likelihood the state will eventually follow.
Also, on Thursday, June 27 (appropriately enough on the eve of the Stonewall Riot’s 50th anniversary), Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Ca) introduced a Federal bill, “H.R. 3570—116th Congress: Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2019” calling for a national ban. Like Wisconsin’s, it is given little chance of becoming law.
Meanwhile, with numbing cognitive dissonance, House Republicans are trying to force Amazon to sell pro-conversion therapy books previously taken off its sales list.
