Yes, conversion therapy is still going on, and Independence still hasn’t banned it

Efforts to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity through talk therapy or some other, more physical means of conversion are still going on in the Kansas City metropolitan area. On Monday, the Independence City Council will once again vote on whether to ban the practice.

Several young members of the LGBTQ and nonbinary community who experienced electroshock or some other form of conversion therapy have been pushing eastern Jackson County leaders to pass legislation banning it. Kansas City banned it two years ago, and North Kansas City took the step last month. It’s no longer allowed as a business practice in Columbia, Lawrence or St. Louis.

Zoe Dunning, 22 and nonbinary, says they were 15 years old when their parents sent them to a private “spiritual life coach” working through Dunning’s church to talk Dunning into gender conformity.

A Linkedin page for Dunning’s Grandview therapist, Laurie Morris Goddu, who charges about $90 an hour, says she attempts to change a person’s perspective or heal them in areas including “lies we believe around identity.” It says that “if needed we address any spiritual harassment. … Sexual brokenness and dissociation are my areas of specialty.”

In a text on Monday, Goddu disputed Dunning’s account and said she treated them for addiction and anxiety. “Nothing I do is coercive! In fact it’s the opposite, giving the person seeing me freedom to process on their own what they want to hold on to or let go of.”

Dunning, however, says this was conversion therapy by another name. It went on for years, and did change them, they said — into someone who was anxious and depressed: “I wasted so much of my life hating myself and no one should have to go through that.”

On Monday, Dunning’s group plans to be in Independence, where the City Council will consider a ban for the second time. The first vote for a ban failed 4 to 3. After some minor changes to wording, an amended ordinance has a better chance of passing.

Independence Mayor Eileen Weir said she’s for it because “I want people to understand that Independence does not approve of any form of conversion therapy. I want people to know, especially young people, that we are looking out for their safety. That we care for them.”

Weir says she was surprised to learn that this is still going on: “When it first came to my attention a few years ago, I was like, you can’t be serious.”

She believes now though that it is still happening throughout the Kansas City area, not just among some religious groups, but in private practices, too.

Blue Springs mayor dismisses ‘feel-good legislation’

The Independence ordinance wouldn’t completely eliminate the practice, because it can’t stop any religious group from attempting to counsel LGBTQ individuals into straight, cisgender versions of themselves.

But it would offer a degree of protection that Blue Springs isn’t even considering.

Blue Springs Mayor Carson Ross said the City Council won’t even review Councilman Galen Ericson’s ordinance to ban conversion therapy, because “it’s a controversial issue” and not enforceable. That’s not the case: If the Independence ordinance passes, a person who violates it could be fined up to $500 and spend up to six months in jail.

Ross called it “feel-good legislation,” and said he doesn’t support passing a conversion therapy ban ordinance just to have it on the books. But how about just to let young LGBTQ residents know their city sees them as OK the way they are?

When Dunning, who lives in Kansas City, and other young people pushing for a conversion therapy ban showed up at a Blues Springs meeting last month, Ross limited their speaking time to two minutes. He said if they came back, he would cut their time even more.

But “we are going to continue fighting this and coming back until they pass it,” said

Zachary Mallory, 24, of Independence and among those backing a ban. “I am a survivor of electroconvulsive therapy,” Mallory told the council. They were 17 at the time, and Mallory believes that happened because they are gender non-conforming. “I was forced into it by society. I don’t want kids to have to go through conversion therapy just because they will not pass this ban.”

Twenty states do ban the practice, while five have some restrictions. Missouri and Kansas are among the 21 states with no statewide ban. Four southern states prohibit any restriction on conversion therapy.

The practice is considered unethical by both The American Psychiatric Association and The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

It doesn’t work. And those put through it are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as LGBTQ people who have not been subjected to the practice.

Which is reason enough to outlaw it.

This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.