At this evening's meeting, the Lake Worth City Commission unanimously voted to prohibit licensed mental health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy on minors within city limits.
Vice Mayor Pro Tem Andy Amoroso, Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell,
Mayor Pam Triolo, Commissioner Ryan Maier and Christopher McVoy
Conversion
therapy, also known as reparative therapy, or sexual orientation change
efforts (SOCE), encompasses a range of discredited counseling practices
by which health care providers or counselors seek to change a person's
sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression through
aversion treatment. Mayor Pam Triolo, Commissioner Ryan Maier and Christopher McVoy
The action was taken at the request of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council (PBCHRC), the county's most effective civil rights organization. Over the past 28 years, the independent non-profit organization has succeeded in having local public officials enact more than 110 laws and policies providing equal rights, benefits and protection for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) community.
Attorney W. Trent Steele, a longtime member of the PBCHRC Board of
Directors, focused on the need to protect children from practitioners of
conversion therapy."Conversion therapy is usually forced on minors by parents who find it impossible to accept the fact that their children identify as gay or lesbian," said Steele. "This so-called 'treatment' is extremely harmful."
PBCHRC is partnering with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Both organizations have been successful in their efforts to protect minors from being subjected to the harms caused by conversion therapy.
"Conversion
therapy is an extremely dangerous and fraudulent practice that claims
to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity," said
Scott McCoy, senior policy counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"This bogus practice is premised on the lie that LGBTQ individuals
have a 'condition' that needs to be cured. This evening, the West Palm
Beach city commission took a step in the right direction by approving
this ordinance to ban this harmful practice on minors. The commission
has sent a message to LGBTQ youth: 'You are perfect the way you are and
do not need to be 'fixed.'"
According to Dr. Rachel Needle, a licensed psychologist who practices in
West Palm Beach, the practice of conversion therapy is based on two false premises."First, it is based on the falsehood that being gay, lesbian or transgender is a mental disorder or defect that needs to be cured, " said Needle. "And secondly, it is based on the presumption that being LGBTQ is something that can actually be changed through therapy."
Needle, who is also an adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University, noted that the potential risks of conversion therapy on children include shame, guilt, depression, decreased self-esteem, increased self-hatred, feelings of anger and betrayal, loss of friends, social withdrawal, problems in sexual and emotional intimacy, hostility and blame towards parents, high risk behaviors, confusion, self-harm, substance abuse and suicidal ideation.
"Any ethical mental health practitioner should not attempt to cure or repair gender identity or sexual orientation through these scientifically invalid techniques," Needle stated. "Attempting to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity can have a devastating impact on a minor."
Lake Worth Vice Mayor Pro Tem Andy Amoroso, who is openly gay, brought the ordinance forward."There is nothing wrong with being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, so there is nothing that needs to be fixed through this so-called therapeutic treatment," said Amoroso. "For decades, studies have shown that this is harmful to LGBT kids, and we are not going to permit that to happen in our city."
"The
discredited practice of conversion therapy has long been rejected by
virtually all of our nation's mainstream medical and mental health
organizations," said PBCHRC President and Founder Rand Hoch. "Instilling self-hatred in children is not therapy"Nearly every major medical and psychological association in the country has come out in opposition to conversion therapy. These include the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American College of Physicians, the American Counseling Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American School Health Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the Pan American Health Organization, the Regional Office of the World Health Organization and the World Psychiatric Association.
"The American
Psychological Association has linked conversion therapy to depression,
substance abuse and even suicide, and these risks are particularly
acute for youth," said Carolyn Reyes, Youth Policy Counsel and Coordinator of NCLR's BornPerfect Campaign to end conversion therapy "We
applaud the efforts by the Commission to ensure that the children of
West Palm Beach County are protected from these harms, and that their
families aren't duped by trusted professionals to whom they turn for
support during a vulnerable time."
In addition, conversion therapy has been soundly rejected by the American Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers, the American School Counselor Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Education Association and the School Social Work Association of America.
Last May, the Southern Poverty Law Center published a comprehensive report entitled " Quacks: 'Conversion Therapists,' the Anti-LGBT Right, and the Demonization of Homosexuality." (www.splcenter.org/20160525/
Across the nation, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, the District of Columbia, Cincinnati, Seattle and Pittsburgh have already enacted laws to prevent licensed mental health providers from offering conversion therapy to minors.
In Florida, West Palm Beach, Miami, Wilton Manors, Miami Beach, Bay Harbor Islands and North Bay Village have enacted conversion therapy bans.
The Lake Worth ban on conversion therapy - and
all of the similar bans enacted to date - applies only to
state-licensed therapists. Unlicensed therapists, such as those
associated with faith-based groups, retain their religious freedom to
engage in such work. Additionally, adults remain free to seek out
conversion therapy.
Although there have been several court challenges to the constitutionality of banning conversion therapy, all have failed. On three occasions, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear challenges to the constitutionality laws banning conversion therapy for minors.
U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) have introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act to empower the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on conversion therapy. Specifically, the law would make sexual orientation change efforts illegal under the Federal Trade Commission Act, and classify advertising these services or providing them in exchange for monetary compensation as fraudulent, unfair, and deceptive. The bill would also explicitly clarify that the Federal Trade Commission has the duty to enforce this provision and would further provide state attorneys general the authority to enforce it in federal court.
In addition, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign (a Washington, DC-based LGBTQ rights organization which is not affiliated with PBCHRC) filed a federal consumer fraud complaint with the Federal Trade Commission seeking to ban conversion therapy nationwide.
During the 2016 legislative session, State Senator Jeff Clemens (D-Atlantis) introduced a bill to prohibit conversion therapy statewide (S. 258). However, the Senate refused to take action on the bill. Clemens intends to reintroduce his bill in 2017
"While we wait to see if Florida's legislative leaders will even schedule a hearing on Senator Clemens' bill, the City of Lake Worth will take action now to protect LGBT youth," said Amoroso.
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