Republicans in Wisconsin's legislature have saved conversion therapy for another year. In a 61-35 vote on March 14, the Republican-controlled state assembly ensured that a ban on the practice could not take effect.
The state's Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Counseling, and Social Work Examining Board barred conversion therapy in December. When the state legislature convened in January, however, its Republican-controlled rules committee voted to suspend the ban pending future legislation.
Republicans brought a bill to the assembly floor on March 14 that would prohibit the board from enacting any future conversion therapy bans. But legislators knew that Wisconsin's Democratic governor, Tony Evers, would have vetoed the measure.
Consequently, Republicans instead voted to send the bill back to the Rules Committee, ensuring that the rules committee's decision to allow conversion therapy will stand until the current legislative session ends in 2024.
Conversion therapy for minors has been banned in more than a dozen Wisconsin cities. At least 20 states — including Washington state — and the District of Columbia have outlawed conversion therapy for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ rights think tank.
LGBTQ rights advocates have demonstrated that the practice of trying to "convert" LGBTQ people to heterosexuality and traditional gender expectations is harmful, and scientific research shows the practice can increase the risk of suicide and depression.
The idea that same-sex attraction was pathological and could be "cured" was common among psychiatrists until the 1970s, when the pioneering work of sexologists like Alfred Kinsey demonstrated that it was really a normal variation of human sexuality.
Medical professionals were slower to accept the idea that gender-nonconforming people could be healthy and productive, but by the turn of the 21st century, most health professionals have recognized that gender-affirming medical care produces positive results for their patients.
Polling consistently shows that most Americans believe that conversion therapy for minors should be outlawed.