After swearing in new and returning council members, Oberlin City Council on Jan. 5 unanimously advanced its ordinance banning conversion therapy on minors — but with some hesitation.
Council is required to read any new business three times unless members waive the three-reading rule. The conversion therapy ordinance was read a second time during the meeting, but the city’s law director, Jon Clark, recommended an amendment striking a sentence that clarifies how the ban would not affect a counselor who is supporting a patient through their gender transition.
A similar clarifying sentence was a sticking point for U.S. Sixth Circuit judges, who last month issued an injunction against Michigan’s ban on conversion therapy targeting minors in a 2-1 decision. In the majority opinion, Judge Larsen Kethledge wrote that banning counselors from practicing on minors is a violation of the counselor’s First Amendment rights.
“If the counseling ‘seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,’ the therapist can lose her license; but if the counseling supports ‘a gender transition,’ the counseling is lawful,” Kethledge writes. “As applied to these plaintiffs, therefore, the Michigan law restricts speech, not conduct.”
The Sixth Circuit’s decision came as the U.S. Supreme Court’s is in the midst of deciding the constitutionality of conversion-therapy bans in Chiles v. Salazar, a case that challenges Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law. Nonetheless, the appeal court’s decision could affect other bans on conversion therapy in Ohio. All current municipal bans include a sentence creating an exception for therapy that affirms a patient’s gender transition.
But Clark did not believe that striking the sentence from Oberlin’s ordinance would change how the law is enforced.
“ I don’t see that doing any damage to the legislation because we still have the core definition of conversion therapy,” he said. “I don’t know that it really matters what we say that it doesn’t mean, as long as we say what it does mean.”
Council Member Libni Lopez, a mental health therapist who has counseled LGBTQ+ individuals who were subjected to conversion therapy, spearheaded the ordinance. He doesn’t think striking the sentence will jeopardize the ban or put transgender patients in danger, but he said bans on conversion therapy will continue to be targeted.
“There will constantly be battles that will push against this ordinance,” Lopez said. “There will probably be lawsuits as they have had in Michigan.”
Though he doesn’t think Oberlin has anyone practicing conversion therapy, he said passing this ordinance is part of a broader fight.
“This is to continue the momentum to other cities that are having practitioners who are practicing conversion therapy,” Lopez said. “I think it helps smaller cities continue to move forward in this [effort].”
If passed, Oberlin will become the 15th Ohio municipality to ban conversion therapy on minors, following Whitehall in August 2025 and Cuyahoga County’s county-wide ban in September. State Democrats introduced bills in the House and Senate in 2025 to ban conversion therapy on minors statewide. Neither bill has been scheduled for a hearing.
The next Oberlin City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 20. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- Contact information for Oberlin City Council can be found here.
- If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are an transgender adult in crisis, please contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860.
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