Why is a City of Kelowna Ban on Conversion Therapy Important?

Thank you for supporting this petition! We'd like to take a moment to share some background on the importance of a city ban on conversion therapy. The information below is from the "2019 Vancouver SOGIECE Dialogue." 

"Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts (SOGIECE) refer to a broad set of treatments, practices, or sustained efforts that aim to repress, discourage, or change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. In June of 2019, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health recommended that “the Government of Canada work with the provinces and territories to eliminate the practice of conversion therapy in Canada and consider making further modifications to the Criminal Code.” In this context, the 2019 Vancouver SOGIECE Dialogue was held on November 2, 2019. Our objective was to convene survivors, community leaders, researchers, and policy advocates in order to share professional and lived experiences of SOGIECE, identify key health and social service needs of SOGIECE survivors, exchange ideas about pan-North American interventions, and determine how research could be undertaken to address gaps in knowledge.

• Municipal bans: Municipal conversion therapy bans have tended to target business licenses and land use, though municipalities can create or amend bylaws that reflect values, beliefs, wellbeing and safety of their community.
• Provincial/territorial bans: Provinces and territories have the power to ban conversion therapy through legislation that governs the provision of publicly funded health services. To date, three Canadian provinces (Ontario 2015, Nova Scotia 2019, and PEI 2019) have enacted provincial legislative bans. Provinces also have jurisdiction over enforcement of child welfare; for example, in British Columbia, the Infants Act and Family Law Act have been invoked to protect the rights of trans minors to receive gender-affirming medical care and to protect against exposure to psychological harm.
• Federal bans: The federal government has the potential to use a wide range of legislative and policy tools to curb SOGIECE across the country. Federal bans have been enacted in Malta and Taiwan.45 Federal leaders of multiple parties made election commitments in the fall of 2019 to amend the Criminal Code to ban conversion therapy targeting LGBTQ2 people.46 Some participants suggested exploring a policy mechanism that revokes the charitable status of organizations practicing SOGIECE.

Dialogue participants asserted that the most effective strategy to end SOGIECE will include bans at all levels of government. Participants emphasized that municipalities, provinces/territories, and the federal government all have a role to play. This is because—as detailed above—SOGIECE occur in multiple settings and take multiple forms, which will be responsive to different levels and forms of legislative action."

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