Milwaukee Weighs ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ban

Milwaukee could become the first city in Wisconsin to ban therapies intended to convert gay and lesbian residents into heterosexuals.

A proposal to ban such therapies is moving forward in Milwaukee’s Common Council after the Milwaukee Public Works Committee approved the measure sponsored by Milwaukee Alderman Chevalier “Chevy” Johnson by a 2-0 vote Thursday. Two committee members abstained.

Johnson and other backers said the techniques known as “conversion” or “reparative” therapies are harmful and ineffective, and that the ban would show Milwaukee values its LGBTQ residents.

Tony Snell Rodriguez of the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission said the move is significant even if there aren’t any providers of conversion therapy in the city.

“It’s important that we show we’re an affirming city, to people that are making decisions about moving here or studying here or working here. That’s an important message. It’s an important message also to the children out there, who know that somebody is standing by them, that there’s a city standing by them.”

No one spoke against the proposal at the hearing, but Alderman Bob Donovan, one of the two committee members to abstain, said he had “some concerns about overreach on an issue that you, quite frankly, can’t even expound to us on how severe it is in Milwaukee.”

If approved by the full council and signed by Mayor Tom Barrett, the measure could make Milwaukee the first city in Wisconsin to ban conversion therapy, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks state and local LGBTQ legislation across the country.

Nine states, the District of Columbia and a range of cities and towns have similar bans.

A group of Democratic state lawmakers proposed a ban in Wisconsin last year, but the measure didn’t advance in the legislature.

Programs, such as these therapies, aimed at “curing” homosexuality spread across the United States in the 1950s and 60s, though the American Psychiatric Association and other organizations have held for decades that reparative treatments can cause psychological harm.