Council takes next step toward Oking ban
A city council committee unanimously approved a bylaw to ban conversion therapy late Thursday, wrapping an emotional two-day public hearing with 121 speakers.
The new rules would see local businesses face a $10,000 fine if they’re found advertising or offering the discredited practice of conversion therapy. The bylaw still faces final approval from city council later this month.
Conversion therapy, a blanket term for practices aimed at changing someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation, has been denounced as harmful by medical and human rights organizations in Canada and around the world.
Councillors heard that around 1,800 written submissions had been sent to the city by the time the meeting was winding down. Coun. Joe Magliocca said he had gotten more emails about conversion therapy than he’s seen about the $4.9-billion Green Line project.
Calgary’s proposed bylaw defines conversion therapy as “a practice, treatment, or service designed to change, repress, or discourage a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour.” The definition doesn’t apply to “a person’s non-judgmental exploration and acceptance of their identity or development.”
Some people who weighed in at the public hearing were from religious groups who said they were opposed to the bylaw because it could interfere with freedom of religion.
The final speaker at the hearing held back tears as she told council she was both the parent of a trans woman and a person of faith. Her daughter, she said, was 35 before she came out. She said she was dismayed by what she saw as judgment from many of the people who spoke to the committee about the bylaw.
“So many of you who would judge, I would like you to lead with love,” she said.
City officials said the bylaw focuses on businesses, and wouldn’t apply to situations such as personal conversations between people, including parents and children, which was a concern of some speakers. The city is “confident” that the bylaw would stand up to any Charter challenges.
Coun. Evan Woolley urged his colleagues to move the bylaw ahead. “Over and over again, speaker after speaker came forward yesterday to speak about how important it is to support those in our LGBTQ2S+ community,” he said.
“And then very often yesterday we heard a ‘but’ or a ‘however.’ And I guess I am struggling immensely to understand how you can truly love someone if you hold a set of beliefs that posit that another person’s form of love is immoral, sinful and evil in the face of your god.”
Coun. Jyoti Gondek said the bylaw will do what council asked for when they approved a motion to create a ban in February, and help protect Calgarians.
“The most subtle form of torture is giving an indication to somebody that who they are, their identity that they relate to, is somehow wrong and somehow not enough,” she said.
If council gives final approval to the bylaw later this month, Calgary will join other Alberta municipalities, including Edmonton, that have enacted similar bans.