County to consider conversion therapy ban
Allegheny County Council President John DeFazio, D-Shaler, and Councilman Paul Klein, D-Point Breeze, will introduce legislation Tuesday to ban sexual orientation and gender conversion therapy for minors, they announced Friday.
The legislation, first reported by Pittsburgh City Paper, comes more than two years after Pittsburgh City Council passed a similar ban.
It would amend the county’s Health and Sanitation Code to prohibit “practices by mental health professionals to convert [a minor] individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, including efforts to change behaviors, or to eliminate or reduce sexual romantic feelings toward individuals of the same sex, regardless of whether such attempt is the primary goal of treatment.”
The ordinance defines mental health providers broadly as any individual who provides “mental health services,” even if they are not a licensed professional.
“We’re aiming this legislation at protecting minors and making sure they are not required to endure or go through a process of conversion, a practice that largely in the established psychological community has really been discredited,” Mr. Klein said.
“We are attempting to effectively close the door on this kind of discredited practice and at the same time give legitimacy to people’s sexual and gender identities,” he said.
The proposal does not specify a punishment for violations.
While the ordinance does not prescribe an enforcement mechanism, Mr. Klein said, “If someone is engaging in this kind of practice, we would have capacity as a county to go to court and seek injunctive relief.”
Mr. Klein said the ordinance was limited to minors because that will make it easier to defend in court and because adults “have the right to make decisions.”
Following its introduction at Tuesday’s meeting, the ordinance will be referred to one of council’s committees for review, likely health and human services or public safety, according to Mr. Klein.
“We thought that as the second-largest county in the state that we really had to step up. We’re hoping we’ll have enough support to pass this and we believe the county executive will sign off.”
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald does not comment on council legislation until after council has voted.
Council members who have signed on as co-sponsors are Denise RanalliRussell, D-Brighton Heights; Anita Prizio, DO’Hara; and Patrick Catena, D-Carnegie, according to the county’s legislation tracker.
The proposal comes less than a week after Mr. DeFazio’s challenger in the upcoming May Democratic primary, Bethany Hallam, received the endorsement of the Steel City Stonewall Democrats, the party’s local LGBT political advocacy group.