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Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023

Have 14 cities in Wisconsin banned conversion therapy?

Jacob Alabab-Moser, Wisconsin Watch
yes

As of January 2023, an ordinance banning licensed mental health practitioners from using conversion therapy on minors was in effect in 14 Wisconsin cities: Appleton, Cudahy, Eau Claire, Glendale, Kenosha, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Shorewood, Sun Prairie, Superior and West Allis. 

Conversion therapy refers to any practice attempting to alter an individual's sexual orientation or gender. These city-level bans amount to protections for 24% of the population from conversion therapy, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonpartisan think tank.

While Wisconsin has no statewide ban on conversion therapy, Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order banning federal and state funding of the practice in 2021. A state licensing board under the Evers administration also adopted licensing rules to ban conversion therapy in 2020, but Republican lawmakers voted in 2021 and in early 2023 to block the ban.  

See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch

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