MADISON – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers this week told two conservative organizations his administration has “no intention” of repealing the state’s conversion therapy ban – prompting the promise of a lawsuit from at least one of the groups.
The Democratic governor in a May 5 letter rejected a demand from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and Wisconsin Family Action that the state stop enforcing its ban on the widely discredited practice through which counselors instruct LGBTQ+ patients to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.
In his response, Evers said he was disappointed the groups “wasted no time enthusiastically taking up the mantle to restore a long-disavowed and outdated practice that decades of scientific and medical research has demonstrated is, at best, ineffective and, at worst, dangerous.”
“On the other hand, this should come as no surprise. After all, bullying LGBTQ kids and Wisconsinites seems to be an important goal for Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and Wisconsin Family Action,” Evers wrote.
Asked for a response to the governor’s letter, WILL deputy counsel Rebecca Furdek said, “Lawsuit incoming.”
In a post on X, WILL deputy counsel Dan Lennington called Evers’ letter “an emotional outburst, personally attacking WILL & our employees.”
WILL and Wisconsin Family Action made the initial demand to Evers, the state Department of Safety and Professional Services and its Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Counseling, and Social Work Examining Board in a letter sent April 14.
Groups’ demands follow a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Colorado case
The groups’ formal demand followed a March 31 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for young people infringes on the free speech rights of Christian counselor Kaley Chiles.
The Supreme Court held that the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should have applied a stricter constitutional test to evaluate the state’s law. The court sent the case back to the appeals court to be reconsidered under the tougher test, which it is unlikely to pass.
WILL and Wisconsin Family Action argue the Chiles ruling makes Wisconsin’s ban “unconstitutional and unenforceable.”
Evers disagrees.
The Supreme Court “intentionally—and specifically—stopped short of striking down any applications of Colorado’s law,” he wrote, adding that repealing Wisconsin’s rule before the Denver appeals court reconsiders the case “would be premature.”
The governor also noted the Chiles case specifically addresses the counselor’s talk therapy practice.
“Like Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, [Wisconsin’s administrative rule] covers much more than just talk therapy, and so it undoubtedly continues to have many valid applications, even after Chiles,” Evers wrote.
Because of the Chiles case, however, Evers said DSPS has asked the Legislative Reference Bureau to add language to the rule noting the issue is the subject of ongoing litigation. That addition is set to publish June 1, according to the governor’s letter.
Wisconsin’s conversion therapy ban has withstood legal challenges at the state level.
Evers sued lawmakers last year over whether a Republican-controlled legislative committee acted unconstitutionally when it blocked his administration’s rule. In a 4-3 ruling last summer, the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court limited the ability of the Legislature’s powerful Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules to block regulations issued by the executive branch and, in doing so, allowed the conversion therapy ban to stay in place.
More than a dozen major mental health and medical organizations, including the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association, have renounced conversion therapy as ineffective and harmful.
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
USA TODAY contributed.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gov. Tony Evers rebuffs conservative groups on conversion therapy
Reporting by Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
