AKRON, Ohio — On Monday, the city of Akron became the 11th municipality in Ohio to ban the practice of conversion therapy for minors.
Conversion therapy, which uses psychological, spiritual and sometimes physical approaches to attempt to alter a person’s gender identity and/or sexual orientation.
This practice is opposed by every major medical and behavioral health organization, said Erich Merkle, a school psychologist and Ohio School Psychologists Association liaison.
“Conversion or reparative therapy is a harmful practice. It has been prohibited by every major medical and behavioral health organization since the 1990s through the present day,” Merkle said. “So it is not a sanctioned or endorsed practice and it is considered to be incredibly harmful.”
Twenty states and the District of Columbia have banned conversion therapy for minors, but it is still legal in the state of Ohio.
“When we subject somebody to try to shift who they are as a person, what we find is that it produces things like anxiety, depression, substance misuse, suicidally,” Merkle explained.
Keith Munnerlyn, an outreach case manager for The Akron Aids Collaborative, said he is happy that the city has enacted this ban and believes it will save the lives of LGBTQ youth in the city.
“I think it will save a lot of lives and I think what will wind up happening is it will make people kind of rethink their thinking,” Munnerlyn said. “It’s sad to think that in the world that we live in today that people cannot expect people for their truth. It doesn’t have to be your truth, but that is their truth.”
This new measure will give the Akron Civil Rights Commission the authority to investigate complaints of reports of conversion therapy for minors.
“It [the ban] says that people are allowed to be who they are. We are not going to subject them to an unscientifically rigorous and an invalidated practice,” Merkle said. “We are going to allow them to live congruent with themselves.”
