Columbia Council delays vote on conversion therapy ban for LGBTQ kids
The Columbia City Council didn’t take a final vote Tuesday night on an ordinance that would prohibit professional therapists from offering conversion therapy that attempts to change the sexual orientation of LGBTQ minors.
The Council unanimously gave a first approval for the measure in a May 4 meeting. A second, and final, vote could have come Tuesday. It was not listed among the action items on the Council’s agenda, but the city’s legal team discussed the matter with the Council in a closed-door executive session at the end of a lengthy meeting Tuesday. There was not a vote on the ban after that session.
At-large Councilman Howard Duvall said there could be a final vote on the matter at one of the Council’s meetings in June.
As outlined in the ordinance, conversion therapy — sometimes referred to as reparative therapy or ex-gay therapy — is considered a “treatment that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.” Essentially it is an attempt, through therapy, to change someone’s sexual orientation from gay, lesbian or bisexual to straight.
The ordinance would prohibit “any provider to provide conversion therapy or reparative therapy to a minor within city limits if the provider receives compensation for such services.” The penalty would be civil, not criminal, and would carry a $500 fine.
Council members indicated they have received a wave of email on the conversion therapy issue, from those supporting and opposing the ordinance.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Columbia resident Dylan Gunnels, a 2019 City Council candidate and founder of the Agape Table organization that focuses on the LGBTQ and faith communities, spoke in favor of the city’s proposed ban on conversion therapy for minors.
“I’m queer and I love Jesus,” Gunnels said. “I’m queer and I’m a person of faith. I’m queer and I went through conversion therapy without choice and it didn’t help me. It only harmed me. At 28 years old I am still dealing with some of the traumas with my therapist now, who is actually licensed and able to walk me through those issues that I faced.”
To date, 20 states and Washington, D.C., have banned conversion therapy for minors. Dozens of cities and counties across the nation have opposed the practice as well.
In November 2020, a federal appeals court struck down a pair of youth conversion therapy bans in Florida, one in the city of Boca Raton and another in Palm Beach County. According to a report from NBC News, the court agreed with two therapists who said their rights to free speech had been violated.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Maryland tossed out a therapist’s lawsuit challenging that state’s youth conversion therapy ban. A number of medical organizations, including the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, have taken positions against conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth.
Council’s Tuesday meeting came after state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, a Spartanburg County Republican, asked Republican S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson to consider taking legal action against the city if it passed the ban. Attorney general’s office spokesman Robert Kittle said Monday that the office had received the senator’s request.
“I think this is a violation of the concept of the First Amendment,” Kimbrell told The State Monday morning. “You can’t tell somebody, as a private practitioner, what they can and cannot say to a client, particularly a child who is under the direction of that child’s parents. What the city of Columbia is proposing is unconstitutional on its face.”
