Milwaukee City Hall – Photo: James Steakley, via Wikimedia.
On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Common Council voted 12-2 to approve a ban on conversion therapy within the city limits.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is expected to sign the ban into law, which would prohibit licensed counselors or mental health practitioners from attempting to subject children under the age of 18 to the therapy, which purports to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The ban only applies to fee-based conversion therapy services, and does not prohibit churches or religious organizations from offering their own form of counseling to minors struggling with LGBTQ identity. Opponents of the ban had fretted that it would chill speech and discourage ministers — who themselves might be therapists or counselors — from assisting LGBTQ-identifying children.
Ald. Cavalier Johnson, the sponsor of the bill, says he introduced the measure because he was concerned about the detrimental effects that psychological and medical experts say conversion therapy can have on children who are subjected to it. For example, he says, children who undergo conversion therapy can have higher rates of depression, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation.
Additionally, Johnson notes, there’s no evidence that the therapy actually is successful in permanently changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Rather, it may only modify their behavior and prevent them from engaging in same-sex relationships or from acknowledging their gender identity.
Most mainstream medical or mental health organizations have condemned or distanced themselves from the practice of conversion therapy, including the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, and American Medical Association.
Ten states and the District of Columbia currently ban licensed therapists from engaging in conversion therapy with minors. The State of New York has an executive order that essentially tries to ban the therapy by instituting regulations requiring that insurance companies offering plans in the state will not cover for-profit conversion therapy. However, individual municipalities within the state have had to take an extra step and issue their own bans, as lawmakers in the Republican-controlled State Senate in Albany have killed bills calling for an explicit statewide ban.
Several other municipalities in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, have also banned conversion therapy. Bills identical to the one passed in Milwaukee are currently being weighed in the city of Sarasota, Fla., as well as in the legislatures of New Hampshire, Maryland, and Hawaii.
LGBTQ groups issued statements praising the Common Council’s vote as a measure that would protect vulnerable children from harm.
“No child should be subjected to the abusive practice of so-called conversion therapy, which has been rejected by every major medical and mental health organization,” Wendy Strout, Wisconsin State Manager for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “We thank the Milwaukee Common Council and the team at the Milwaukee LGBT Center for putting the well-being and safety of our children first, and hope their leadership can be an example to cities across the state.”
“We applaud the City of Milwaukee for taking this important and bold step in protecting the LGBTQ community from these destructive, dangerous practices,” Michael Vinson, Chairman Emeritus of Fair Wisconsin, said in a statement. “We remain hopeful that communities across the state will follow Milwaukee’s lead in helping to ensure a fair, safe and inclusive Wisconsin for all.”
The U.S. State Department has ordered officials worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes attempting to come to the U.S. for sports competitions.
It is also ordering permanent visa bans against transgender people whose gender marker on their application doesn't match their assigned sex at birth.
A State Department cable obtained by The Guardian instructs visa officers to enforce a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the United States to refuse entry to any visa applicant who commits identity fraud or misrepresents who they are.
Unlike regular visa denials, anyone violating that section can be permanently refused entry to the United States, effectively constituting a lifelong ban.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked a Republican bill attempting to ban transgender athletes from women's and girl's sports at educational institutions.
The bill, S. 9, sought to rewrite Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational programs or activities, by explicitly stopping federal funds from going to institutions that allow transgender athletes to compete on female-designated competitive or elite sports teams.
The prohibition would not apply to co-ed or intramural sports leagues, nor does it prevent cisgender females from being allowed to try out for male-designated sports teams if their school does not offer that sport for females.
The School District of Philadelphia announced it will defy President Donald Trump's executive order prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.
This move contrasts with the actions of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body of K-12 sports in the Keystone State.
The PIAA revised its policy to comply with Trump's executive order, replacing references to a student's "gender" with sex. It removed principals' authority to make a final determination regarding a student's sex and allowed a school to determine it (presumably based on the gender marker on school records and birth certificates, although the policy lacks specifics).
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