The Republican-controlled Joint Committee for Review and Administrative Rules in Wisconsin voted to strike down a ban on conversion therapy last week, effectively making the practice legal.
Conversion therapy is a broad term that can describe many practices that generally involve trying to force homosexuals and other LGBTQ+ people to be straight. The methods involved in these practices are highly discredited by medical professionals, and those who have been victims of conversion therapy have described it as torture.
In 2020, a ban on conversion therapy was introduced by the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services board with the support of Gov. Tony Evers (D). However, legislation to block the ban was introduced by Republicans and placed in committee to avoid a veto by Evers.
The committee’s co-chairman Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) said the vote had nothing to do with “the merits of conversion therapy.”
“We’re not here to debate the merits of that practice, simply to discuss the role of an examining board to administer rules to come up with a code of ethics versus overstepping and doing public policy,” Neylon said during the committee hearing.
All Democrats on the committee voted against lifting the ban and condemned the harmful effects conversion therapy has on the mental health of those subjected to it.
“If this vote today suspends the rule everyone here should be clear about the message it sends to the LGBTQ young people in this state, to families that Wisconsin is a place that will allow harm to come to those children, that we will not stand up and protect consumers, and we will go against all the science,” said Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison).
Not only is it impossible to forcibly change someone’s sexual orientation, but conversion therapy also relies on the false basis that homosexuality is a mental disorder. Several U.S. states have banned conversion therapy in recent years because of its human rights violations.