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HEALTH
City Council to Scrap
Conversion Therapy Ban
Lawsuit, superceding state law cited
MATT TRACY
The New York City Council
is repealing its ban
on so-called conversion
therapy in response to
LGBTQ advocates who voiced their
satisfaction with the state’s version
of the measure and acknowledged
that legal challenges could derail
the city law anyway.
Out gay Speaker Corey Johnson
confi rmed to Gay City News that
the city’s lawmaking body, after
“intense deliberation,” is planning
to ditch the 2017 law that broadly
bans New Yorkers from paying for
the debunked practice of trying to
change a person’s sexual orientation
or gender identity.
“The courts have changed considerably
over the last few years,
and we cannot count on them to
rule in favor of much-needed protections
for the LGBTQ community,”
said Johnson, who noted that
queer youth are protected by the
state law.
A spokesperson for the speaker
could not confi rm exactly when the
City Council plans to move ahead
with the repeal.
The bigoted Arizona-based legal
group Alliance Defending Freedom,
which has fought against
queer causes in court for years,
took aim at the city law in January
when the organization fi led suit in
US district court in Brooklyn arguing
that the measure is unconstitutional
because it violates free
speech.
The city legislation is far broader
than the conversion therapy bans
passed in a number of states, including
New York, where the practice
is only banned from being
used on minors.
Johnson emphasized that the
City Council is still strongly opposed
to conversion therapy, calling
it “barbaric and inhumane.”
“I can’t stress enough how agonizing
of a decision this was, but
ultimately I listened to the advocates
who know the issue best, as
well as my heart,” he said.
Shannon Minter, who is the legal
director for the National Center
for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) in San
Francisco, told Gay City News that
his team is on board with the move
to repeal the ban because the state
law suffi ciently protects LGBTQ
youth. Local and state consumer
fraud laws, he said, already provide
legal recourse for adults.
“Getting rid of the local law does
not take away any legal protections,”
he stressed. “This is a smart
move, and we strongly support
what the City Council is doing.”
Those consumer protections are
coming in handy because they are
especially unique to New York, according
to conversion therapy survivor
Mathew Shurka, a native New
Yorker who also works with NCLR
and was among the advocates to
prod the city to repeal the law.
“New York City is the only city
that has protections as far reaching
as that,” Shurka told Gay City
News on September 11.
Shurka said he and other advocates
started conversations about
the issue with the City Council
roughly six months ago, which
would have been about two months
after the ADL fi led its lawsuit and
the state passed its conversion
therapy ban.
“Our goal is to minimize the
lawsuits if they’re unnecessary,”
Shurka said. “We have a state law
that can minimize the amount of
lawsuits that are out there and
save our resources in helping and
protecting LGBTQ people.”
Other advocacy groups that encouraged
the city to repeal the law
included the LGBT Bar Association
and Foundation of Greater New
York and Lambda Legal, according
to a City Council spokesperson.
Those organizations did not immediately
respond to a request for
comment.
The 2017 bill was led by then-
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
September 12 - September 25, 2 22 019 | GayCityNews.com
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