(This story has been updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
The Green Bay City Council threw its support behind a Wisconsin State Senate bill that would ban certain mental health providers in the state from performing conversion therapy on minors.
In a 9-1 vote on July 15, the council will send a resolution drafted by council members Ben Delie, Joey Prestley, and Alyssa Proffitt to the state Legislature encouraging the passage of the Senate bill on grounds that conversion therapy by medical professionals to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity has been widely discredited and has resulted in significant harm to minors.
It comes on the heels of several legal battles over the issue across the country, including a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that a GOP-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule banning conversion therapy as unconstitutional.
Anticipating these legal challenges and in a bid to stave off First Amendment concerns brought forward during discussion at the City Council’s June meeting, there was language in Green Bay’s resolution explicitly affirming the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression “[acknowledging] that this resolution does not regulate personal beliefs or pastoral conversations.” An amendment by council member Brian Johnson to tack on the words “and religious counseling” was also added in an effort by the city to further clarify that the resolution had no bearing on people’s religious lives nor was the resolution more than a political statement by the city with no law set to take effect.
Several people expressed their concerns that such a resolution amounted to a squashing of their free speech. Diane Merrill of Green Bay said, “If you’re going to pursue this, you’ll need a constitutional lawyer,” adding that, “I’d like to apologize for the Christians who haven’t told you how they feel, but we’ll start.”
Some expressly disavowed the shock therapy and starvation methods associated with conversion therapy, but stood by what they saw as a freedom to choose religious counseling.
And in the words of Brittney Kunkel, “As a mother and a member of the Green Bay community, I’m very concerned about the growing movement to allow increased freedoms for the LGBTQ+ community while at the same time there’s a clear effort to suppress religious and traditional views that uphold biblical and moral values.”
Meanwhile, 10-year-old Pearse Haworth of De Pere, who identified as gay, and his little sister Maeve Haworth, disagreed with that characterization, taking to the podium with their parents.
“The fact that people think being gay is bad is very very messed up,” Pearse Haworth said. “You should be able to marry or have a romantic or platonic relationship with anybody. There’s nothing wrong with that, and that’s what’s happening in this world because that is good,”
Pearse added, “People that think being LGBTQIA+ is a bad thing should respect us because we are good people. [We] have struggled for equality for years and we are still fighting for it because society thinks us being who we are, sexual-orientation-wise, is bad.”
State Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D-Green Bay, who is openly gay and a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, concurred. He recalled that similar religious and moral arguments were made two decades ago against gay marriage.
“They’d call us things like ‘abomination’ like they did last meeting,” Rivera-Wagner said. “They’d come with cruelty covered in religious fervor. And here we are almost 20 years into marriage equality, and the world has not melted, and not imploded, and no one is marrying their dog.”
City Council member Melinda Eck cast the sole vote against the resolution. She said she didn’t understand why the council was spending time addressing the issue at the local level when it was already being litigated on a state and federal level. She motioned to hold the resolution until the U.S. Supreme Court made a judgment on a conversion therapy case from Colorado. No one seconded her motion. Council members William Morgan and Jennifer Grant were absent.
“You could’ve convinced me a few weeks ago, a month ago, that this isn’t worth our time,” said Prestley who had helped draft the resolution. “But seeing some of the testimony and conversation around this, I think it is worth our time. I’m convinced it’s worth our time.”
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay backs Wisconsin bill to ban conversion therapy following arguments at City Council meeting
Reporting by Jesse Lin, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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