Green Bay tackles conversion therapy in fractious meeting

GREEN BAY, WI—(WGBW)— Religion, First Amendment rights, and kindness toward the LGBTQ+ community dominated the Green Bay Common Council meeting Tuesday. The debate came as the council considered whether to ask staff to draft a resolution to oppose the practice of conversion therapy within the City of Green Bay.

The non-binding resolution would simply express Green Bay’s opposition to the practice of conversion therapy. Several religious members of the community spoke against that and in favor of conversion therapy practices.

According to Web MD, conversion therapy is any emotional or physical therapy used to “cure” a person’s attraction to the same sex or their gender identity. Medical and mental health experts have rejected conversion therapy practices as dangerous, leading to depression, anxiety, and in some cases, suicide.

Naysayers on the resolution

David Roth is the paster of One Way Christian Church in Green Bay. He said, “ My greater concern is a violation to all Green Bay Christians in prohibiting the free exercise of our faith…As a believer and follower of Jesus Christ through his word, he commands us to go and witness to the world on his behalf, which in this great nation, we’re to have free exercise to do so. We’re to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to unbelievers. Well, the true gospel becomes a false gospel if we don’t share the outcome, the severity, and the punishment of unrepentant sin. The truth of the word of God is clear that all sexual relations outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sexual immorality, hence sinful.”

Eric Drezwiecki opposed the resolution based on whether it is needed and whether it is a good use of the governmental process.

“ What we’re discussing tonight is if it’s worth our time–and by extension–tax dollars to determine whether or not passing a resolution of words will accomplish something that is worth all that time,” Drezwiecki said.

Opposing conversion therapy

Not all of the speakers were against a possible resolution opposing the practice of conversion therapy. Former school teacher Charles Frisk expressed his desire for the city to be welcoming to all community members, especially the youth of the LGBTQ+ community. 

“I’m strongly in favor of the resolution in opposition to conversion therapy because I think adding conversion therapy to what these kids are already going through is unnecessary piling on,” Frisk said. “All the studies done where they’ve followed kids that have gone through conversion therapy. They find that the suicide rates go up; they don’t go down.”

Alder Alyssa Proffitt is one of three alders authoring the resolution.

“ For anyone who knows someone who has decided the suicide route was better, I think you might feel a little different about this,” Proffitt said. “I feel very passionately that this resolution is an important step that we can take to let those youth and our neighbors know that we are okay with who they are. 

“And this is a resolution. There will be no police officers walking into any church in this municipality to put tickets out there. There will be no fines. This is a resolution. To make our neighbors feel loved, and I think it’s an important move that we take.”

The issue was brought to the council from the Protection and Policy Committee with no recommendation. Eventually, the council voted 8 to 4 to return the resolution to the original authors, Joey Prestley, Alyssa Proffitt, and Ben Delie, to work on the draft of the resolution. After which, the authors would again submit it to the Protection and Policy Committee, which would decide whether to bring it back before the Common Council.