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, Councilwoman Gilmore. Madam Secretary, would you please put the next item on our screens? And, Councilwoman, can you just go ahead with your comment? Thank you, Mr. President. Two bills up tonight. So my apologies to my colleagues, but it's an exciting night. This Bill 1508, is about banning the practice known as conversion therapy. It isn't easy to be someone different than the world expected you to be, to love or want to be with someone that you were never told about in the fairytales that were read to you. To want to be a different gender, to be a different gender than you were raised. I know a little bit about this path because I had to come out to myself and to the world in my early twenties. Loving someone does not make you sick physically or mentally. Being a man or a woman or living outside those labels if you don't fit them neatly, does not make you sick mentally or physically. But shame and rejection make people sick. Shame and rejection that teach you that if you fail to meet the expectations that your religion or your family or your community has, then you are wrong and you don't belong. Each human being among us, we all need to feel like we are accepted by our families, by our communities, and we all need to be loved. And when the message someone receives is you can't get those things unless you change a fundamental part of who you are. You make someone sick. You put them at risk for depression, anxiety, for wanting to not live anymore because there's no way to reconcile something in you that can't change and an expectation that makes you wrong for being that way. Conversion therapy sometimes uses harsh and punitive techniques to try to reinforce this change that it seeks to make people go through. And many people, including folks who led the movement and founded the practice, I did a lot of research over the last few months, and many of the people who started this practice have since denounced it after seeing the harms it has caused the long list of folks who've lost their lives after going through this practice. So when it fails, the consequences are very real. So today's bill ensures that no minor in the city and county of Denver will be subjected to this practice in the form of therapy. Just like we protect minors from other things that could hurt them physically or mentally. We will be protecting them from this practice going forward. I'm very proud to be a part of the conversation that was really led by our LGBTQ commission, which is all volunteers. These are folks from every walks of life some straight, some gay, some transgender, and they all work together to raise this issue and bring it to Councilman Clark, myself, the mayor's office. I want to thank the mayor's office for embracing this and really putting a lot of work into making sure that we could get it done as quickly as possible. And even though we're only on first reading tonight because it's such an important moment, I just wanted to acknowledge the folks who may not be able to be here to tell their own stories about how shame and rejection and attempts to convert them may have. We have harms them, but we're here tonight for them. And I think this is a really important way for our community to affirm that we do love and accept people and we're here to support them through their journeys, not to reject them. Thank you. Council President. Thank you, Councilman. Can you thank you for your words. I can't say it. I can even approach saying it how you said it. I just want to add an amen and then also a thank you to the commission, to the administration, to the office of the city, the city attorney's office for all the work going into this . And I'm so excited to have this on first reading. I'll be even more excited next week when we get to put it through on second reading. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That concludes the items that have been called out. All other bills for introduction are ordered published, and we're now ready for the block vote on resolutions and bills on final consideration. Council members remember that this is a consent or block vote and you will need to vote I. Otherwise, this is your last chance to call it an item for a separate vote. Councilman Brooks, will you please put the resolutions for adoption and the bills on final consideration for final passage on the floor? Thank you. Mr. President. I do move that all the resolution be adopted in final session, be placed upon final consideration, and do pass in the following orders. 1445 1412 1447 1448 1449, 1481 1327 1413 1415 1451. Sloan up here 1452 1453 1454 1485, 1487, 1498, 1266, 13, 14, 1446, 1462, 14, 18, 1434, 14, 64, 14, 28. All series in 2018. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. It has been moved and seconded. Madam Secretary, roll call. Black. Hi, Brooks. Hi. Espinosa. Hi. When I. Gilmore, I Herndon. I. Cashman. I can teach. I knew Ortega I. Susman. I. Mr. President. Hi. I'm Secretary. Please close voting announced the results. 1212 eyes. The resolutions have been adopted and bills have been placed upon final consideration and do pass since there are no public hearings. And if there are no objections from members of Council, we will not take a recess.