May 2, 2107
(Delray Beach, Florida) At tonight's meeting, the Delray Beach City
Commission unanimously voted to prohibit conversion therapy on minors
within city limits. The ban applies to doctors, osteopaths,
psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, marriage or family
therapists and licensed counselors. However, it does not apply to
members of the clergy unless the are also state-licensed mental health
professionals.
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.
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 29 years, the
independent non-profit organization has succeeded in having local public
officials enact
118 laws and policies providing equal rights, benefits and protection for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) community.
To
date, PBCHRC has been responsible for the enactment of similar
conversion therapy bans in West Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Boynton
Beach.
PBCHRC Board Member Marcie Hall focussed
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
Hall. "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 Delray Beach City
Commission took a step in the right direction by enacting 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.'"
Dr. Rachel Needle, a licensed psychologist who practices in Palm
Beach County, told City Commission Members that 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," Needle stated at
last month's City Commission meeting. "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."
"LBGTQ people are not mentally ill. They are not flawed and they do
not need to be 'cured' by anyone," said City Commissioner Mitch Katz.
"Tonight, the Delray Beach City Commission is letting the public know
that we oppose conversion therapy being performed on minors. It is not
going to happen in our city."
Although mental health
practitioners have been conducting conversion therapy on LGBTQ patients
for several decades, the practice gained popularity in the late 20th
century, when Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the co-founder the National
Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH),
popularized conversion therapy.
At tonight's meeting, one of Dr.
Nicolosi's colleagues, Dr. Julie Herren Hamilton urged City Commissioner
to vote down the ban on conversion therapy for minors. She told City
Commissioners that if the enacted the ordinance, it would prohibit
children distressed by homosexual attractions and feelings from getting
help.
While she did not identify herself as such, Dr. Hamilton
served as the President of NARTH for several years. NARTH was a small,
but well-funded, for-profit organization made up of therapists who
sought to diminish the rights of LGBTQ people by singling them out as
having mental disorders.The organization advocated anti-LGBTQ therapy
for children as young a three years old and encouraged parents to have
their children marginalize and ridicule their LGBT classmates. In 2012,
the organization's 501(c)(3) tax exempt status was revoked by the
Internal Revenue Service.
"Dr. Hamilton is intentionally trying to mislead the City Commission,"
said said retired Judge Rand Hoch, PBCHRC's President and Founder.
"Minors protected by the ordinance may seek out treatment from licensed
professionals -- as well as from unlicensed individuals, including
members of the clergy - in addressing any issues regarding their
sexuality. Nothing in the ordinance will prevent minors from seeking
help regarding same-sex attractions, or gender identity or expression."
"The
discredited practice of conversion therapy has long been rejected by
virtually all of our nation's mainstream medical and mental health
organizations," said Hoch. "Instilling self-hatred in children is not
therapy."
Palm Beach County activists have been in the forefront on opposing conversion therapy for many years.
In
November, 2009, more than 100 demonstrators turned out to protest Dr.
Hamilton's NARTH conference in West Palm Beach at which conference
organizers held workshops to train therapists how to convert LGBTQ
individuals to become heterosexuals.
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.
In
August 2009, the American Psychological Association adopted the
"Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation
Distress and Change Efforts," which found that the so-called reparative
treatment relied entirely on anti-LGBTQ bigotry and a clear distortion
of scientific data.
"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 Delray Beach 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/quacks-conversion-therapists-anti-lgbt-right-and-demonization-homosexuality).
Across
the nation, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon,
Vermont, the District of Columbia, Cincinnati (OH), Seattle (WA),
Pittsburgh (PA), Toledo (OH) and Columbus (OH) have already enacted laws
to prevent licensed mental health providers from offering conversion
therapy to minors.
In Florida, West Palm Beach, Lake Worth,
Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Miami, Wilton Manors, Miami Beach, Bay
Harbor Islands, El Portal, Key West and Tampa have enacted conversion
therapy bans for minors. The Riviera Beach City Council is expected to
enact a similar ordinance on May 3.
According to an Orlando
Political Observer-Gravis Marketing poll of 1,243 Florida voters
conducted April 4 through April 10, 71% think conversion therapy should
be illegal for minors in Florida, 18% were uncertain and only 11%
thought conversion therapy should be legal. The poll has a margin of
error of 2.8%.
The Delray Beach 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.
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.
In late April, the
Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017
was introduced in Congress to crack down on conversion therapy. More
than 70 members of Congress have gone on record in support of the bill.
If enacted, 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.
For the past two
consecutive legislative sessions, Florida State Senator Jeff Clemens
(D-Atlantis) introduced bills to prohibit conversion therapy
statewide. However, the Florida Senate refused to take action on the
bills. Clemens intends to reintroduce the bill in the 2018 legislative
session.
"Once again, the Florida Legislature refused to take
up Senator Clemens' bill" said Katz. "Until a national or statewide ban
on conversion therapy is place, we are taking going to do all we can to
protect LGBT youth in Delray Beach,"
