KITCHEN – The City of Kitchener unanimously passed a motion denouncing conversion therapy and urged the federal government to advance its bill to ban the harmful practice.
Kitchener councilors heard powerful life stories at a council meeting Monday night and joined some 12 municipalities across the country in condemning the practice.
Mark Hartburg is a conversion therapy survivor. The former Lutheran minister told counselors that he went through pastoral counseling, many hours of prayer, and was told that being gay was “sinful and unhealthy.”
They told him it needed fixing, Hartburg said. In 2013, he came out and left the church ministry after 28 years.
“These practices made me hate myself,” said Hartburg, who twice contemplated ending his life.
Hartburg is part of No Conversion Canada – Waterloo Region, a local group seeking municipal bans on conversion therapy at all ages in the region. He is also on the board of Spectrum, an organization that supports the 2SLGBTQ + community.
Hartburg and others who spoke before the council want municipalities to ban conversion therapy and want statutes that restrict subsidies, revoke licenses and fine companies that practice conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy is the discredited practice of trying to change the sexual orientation of 2SLGBTQ + people to heterosexual, or forcing those who question their gender identity to be aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth.
The Liberal government tried to pass a bill banning the practice, but it failed before Parliament was dissolved for elections. The bill divided the Conservative caucus, with about half of the party’s MPs voting against it.
Liberals promised to reintroduce a version of the bill within the first 100 days of a new term, which began when cabinet ministers were sworn in last month.
The next proposed legislation would make it illegal to try to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, so it would be a crime to force adults to undergo conversion therapy against their will.
Nicholas Schiavo of the advocacy group No Conversion Canada said that conversion therapy causes “significant harm with lifelong effects.”
Schiavo said the practice still has broad support from religious communities.
“No one should have to change who they are or who they love,” he said.
Dr. Kristopher Wells, Canada Research Chair for Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth at MacEwan University in Edmonton, told the council that conversion therapy is a recognized form of coercion and abuse.
Wells said municipalities can protect the well-being and safety of the 2SLGBTQ + community by restricting the harmful practice.
“You can set an example for other municipalities to follow,” he said.
Melissa Kennedy said it wasn’t until she was 50 that she “stopped looking for a cure where there wasn’t one.”
“Being transgender is one thing and not something to eradicate,” said Kennedy, who identifies as a transgender woman.
The Rev. Frank Szatmari, a minister at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Kitchener, said people must love each other first. Conversion therapy targets LGBTQ communities and falsely claims that it changes sexual identities, he said.
The councilors thanked the delegations that spoke of their experiences and condemned the practice. Coun. Debbie Chapman filed the motion denouncing the practice.
Mayor Berry Vrbanovic called the practice “abhorrent” and Coun. Scott Davey said that conversion therapy is “morally and ethically reprehensible.”
Coun. John Gazzola was absent from the council meeting.
Liz Monteiro is a General Assignment Reporter based in the Waterloo region for The Record. Contact her by email: [email protected]
Reference-www.thestar.com