The Lehigh Valley municipality of Bethlehem became the seventh in the state to ban conversion therapy in a unanimous City Council vote of 6-0.
Councilmembers Bryan Callahan and Shawn Martell sponsored the Appropriate Mental Health Services ordinance, which bans conversion therapy on minors within the city. The measure passed on July 17.
Conversion therapy is not actively happening in Bethlehem, and councilmembers said the ordinance ensures that it never will.
“We didn’t want this happening anywhere near Bethlehem,” said Martell, adding that “there is no scientific evidence suggesting that conversion therapy is helpful in any way. In fact, all of the evidence suggests that it’s harmful to youth in terms of depression and anxiety rates, as well suicide rates going up for youths that have to be subjected to this type of therapy.”
Kids have to figure out who they are and come into their own, added the councilmember. “Anyone who tells a child that there’s something wrong about them because of who they are, that’s shameful to me.”
Allentown, Reading, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Doylestown, State College already banned conversion-therapy practices. John Dawe, interim executive director of Equality PA, said only 17 percent of the state bans the “harmful practice” and added that a statewide law should be implemented.
This week, Delaware became the 15th state to pass a statewide ban on conversion therapy.
“Anti-LGBTQ fairness groups in Harrisburg, including the Republican leadership in both chambers of the state legislature, continue to block a statewide ban. As a result, more than 80 percent of the state’s youth are susceptible to this debunked and harmful practice,” said Dawe. “Laws protecting LGBTQ children from conversion therapy are needed to ensure that therapists who are licensed by the state are providing competent care and are not harming patients. These laws are especially needed to protect minors, who are almost always forced or coerced to undergo conversion therapy rather than opting to undertake these treatments on their own.”
The William Institute at the UCLA School of Law issued a report in January stating that nearly 20,000 LGBT youth (ages 13-17) will receive conversion therapy from a licensed healthcare professional before they reach age 18 in the 35 states that do not ban the practice. Connecticut, California, Nevada, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New York, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Washington, Maryland, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Delaware all have laws or regulations protecting young people from conversion therapy.
Adrian Shanker, executive director of the Bradbury Sullivan LGBT Community Center, worked with Martell and Callahan to introduce the ordinance to Bethlehem’s City Council.
“With the election of President Trump in 2016 and his appointment of cabinet members and a vice president who are supporters of conversion therapy, it became important and more critical to work to end this discredited and dangerous practice wherever we can,” Shanker said. “LGBT youth need and deserve high-quality healthcare and we can’t have that in the presence of a dangerous, unscientific practice like conversion therapy.”