Protest -- LNN

By Connor Gunn

Council officially bans conversion therapy in Lethbridge

Jul 15, 2020 | 2:41 PM

LETHBRIDGE AB– The city of Lethbridge is now one of the few cities across Alberta to ban conversion therapy.

Council passed Bylaw 6228 – “A Bylaw to prohibit the Business Practice of Conversion Therapy” with a 7-2 vote.

The bylaw discussion was long and definitely difficult for some councillors to talk about.

Many councillors were quite vocal on the topic of banning conversion therapy and Councillor Rob Miyashiro was especially expressive.

“It’s great to have these conversations no matter how frustrated I get personally.”

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“There’s a whole group of people in our population that are going to say thank you for doing that, thank you for recognizing that we’ll have had some crap in our lives.”

Miyashiro says the LGBTQQIP2SAA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit (2S), androgynous and asexual) community will be thankful for the decision to ban conversion therapy.

Directly before the vote, Councillor Jeff Carlson exclaimed, “I don’t support this harmful practice, therefore I hope my allies put their hands in the air to ban the harmful practice of conversion therapy.”

Councillor Blaine Hyggen said his reasoning behind not voting for the ban is that he has “a tough time voting for something and making a decision on something that I don’t have all the information for.”

“I would hope all of us would have that concern” he said, in addressing council members.

Hyggen was frustrated with the comments coming from the public towards him saying “I have gotten so much backlash and I don’t know how many times I can say this that I don’t support conversion therapy.”

Conversion therapy is now in the past in Lethbridge and is not allowed in the city.