A bill for an ordinance adopting a new Article IX of Chapter 28 of the Revised Municipal Code concerning “Prohibition of Conversion Therapy.” Amends Chapter 28 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code (DRMC) by adding Article IX concerning the prohibition of conversion therapy for minors. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 12-19-18.
Thank you, Councilman Espinosa. And Madam Secretary, would you please put the next item on our streams and classroom? Can each go ahead with your comment? Thank you. Thank you to my colleague for his kind words. Bill 1508 I'm proud to be a member of the out LGBTQ community, the first one to serve on this council. But I'm pretty humbled because I don't lead or speak for this community. I serve it. And the members of this community are most active in Denver from the LGBTQ commission, and many of them are here tonight. And this bill is the result of their proposal that this was important for us to tackle at the city, their ideas about the best way to do that, and then their work to work with the Human Rights and Community Partnership Department and other experts like one Colorado, to get what we needed. I just wanted to give a short summary of the longer comments that I offered last week, which is that societal expectations to be rigidly male or rigidly female or to love someone in a heterosexual relationship are powerful and sometimes reinforced with violence and threats in our society. If you know someone who's lesbian or gay or or who has transitioned from their gender that they were born or raised as then you know that the feelings that someone has about their gender and the person that they love comes from deep inside of them. It's as innate as as I was trying to explain this to my son and it's like being left handed or right handed society may expect everyone to be right handed, but the shame and the the embarrassment and the cajoling can't change you into someone else. It can't change you into a left handed person. Any more than conversion therapy can change you into someone who's straight. Or change your gender from what you feel on the inside. And so this bill tonight is about banning a practice that exemplifies and leverages shame to try to convince people that they can change who they are. It's a practice that's been well documented to be dangerous by dozens of medical organizations that are outlined for almost a half page in the bill. And today, we're going to protect our most vulnerable community members, minors, from this dangerous practice. And we're going to affirm the fact that they may need support because there is shame and rejection when society rejects individuals for who they are. But then we want to give them the support they need to work through that we don't want to use dangerous practices. So I'm proud to have been part of this bill as well with a straight ally. This council has passed many pro equity ordinances even without a majority, this LGBTQ. And so every day it's an honor to work with Councilman Clark and the other members of this council who never shy away from being strong advocates, even if it's not a life experience that they've all lived. So with that, I am proud to have this be part of our consent agenda without debate, but not without comment, because it's an important piece of legislation. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman Kenny. Councilman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. First, I want to say thanks to the LGBTQ commission for elevating this conversation, for this body to bring this forward, and then Councilwoman can each for bringing this forward. I also want to express my appreciation to Representative Brianna Two-Tone for having brought a proclamation to us that we adopted. I want to say, like three months ago, raising this very issue, and it was passed unanimously among this body. And it's my understanding that you will be doing this at the state level, hopefully. So for for your efforts and for for, you know, bringing that out to us and being willing to come and testify when we brought it forward. I just want to say thank you also for for your work on this. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega, Councilman Lopez. And thank you to my colleague, Councilman Canete for bringing this forward in front of the city council and the mayor's office for their position on and just for our commission. Our commission is amazing in Denver. It's not just the commission for namesake, but it's a it's an activist commission. It's active and recommends policies and is a part of our public body and how you create policy. So thank you so much for your participation. Thank you for your leadership. You know, when this came to committee, I couldn't I. Couldn't believe that we had to explicitly banning what we do we do because we cannot. Allow people to be tortured into hating themselves, because that's what this this therapy is. It's not therapy. It's torture, plain and simple. It's cruel and inhumane. And we have to stand. Up to that. And so I'm glad that Denver can be included in those lists of cities that does not condone torture. In any way, shape or form. And so, you know, I'll say I said this in committee. And I'll say it again, you know, as a parent, it's my job. To make sure that my child is not brought up in. Chaos, to protect them from chaos. For them to be who they are and to love them for who they are. Right. And that goes with. Everybody in this world that's born. There to be loved for who they are, not to be tortured and to hating themselves. So thank you for for bringing this this forward. And I'm proud to be on this council to vote on this in this city. Thank you. Councilwoman, can you. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. See no other comments. I'll just add one more round of thank you to Councilwoman Ortega for bringing forward the proclamation to Councilwoman Kane, each for being an awesome partner and leader on this. To the administration for keeping with this. After we thought where we were, we didn't know if we could find a route to tonight at the city level and to the city attorney's office for really putting in a lot of work to find us that route to the commission for all of your awesome work pushing the city and bringing these things forward. And, you know, I really liked Councilwoman Can to what you said. And so I'm going to say to you, I certainly don't speak for our LGBTQ community, but I'm very proud to represent that community tonight and to represent all the awesome allies to that community that we have in my district and across the city. I think that the two think two words that came up where this is going through tonight on consent. And we passed this as a proclamation unanimously. And I think that says a lot about Denver and how we are trying to do our best to support this community and make sure that we are the best representatives that we can be for our awesome people. So we we love you and I'm very excited to be here. The other thing I was really excited for tonight, so I'm excited to vote yes so that Madam Secretary or we're not going to vote because it's consent.