Why I want Columbia to repeal its conversion therapy ban or else | Opinion

For over three years, I have fought in the South Carolina Senate to overturn Columbia’s ban against so-called “conversion therapy” as I view it as a draconian assault on free speech and an overreach against parental rights.

When the city of Columbia implemented its therapy ban in 2021, it set up a system that would persecute, and in certain cases prosecute, cases against therapists for simply holding deeply held beliefs about human sexuality, gender and identity that have been civilizational cornerstones for millennia.

This is wrong, and I believe it is unconstitutional. For these reasons, I have sought to have the city, under the leadership of Daniel Rickenmann, who voted against the ban in 2021 as a council member and became mayor in 2022, end this assault on free speech in the heart of South Carolina’s capital city.

There are many misrepresentations about what conversion therapy is and is not floating around in popular culture. I do not support anyone being abused because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. By this same measure, however, many minors are merely confused, influenced or misunderstood, and many parents rightly wish to have their child speak with a counselor who shares their faith and values. This should not be a crime, and neither parents nor counselors should be persecuted by government at any level for living out their faith in public life.

For the city of Columbia to ban any counselor who does not share a government-defined radical view of gender reassignment and gender identity as it applies to minors amounts to unadulterated censorship that tramples on both free speech and religious freedom, not to mention freedom of association. Allowing this ban to stand is an affront to the First Amendment.

To address this grievous wrong, I authored an amendment in the Senate version of the state budget this year that would authorize the state to claw back any and all local government funding provided by the state to any local government that implements any such therapy ban.

This puts Columbia on notice and gives them a choice: Abandon this reckless assault on free speech or pay a steep financial price. South Carolina will no longer stand by and subsidize any city or municipality that willfully violates the rights of its citizens as enshrined in the Bill of Rights and further guaranteed under the state Constitution.

I am proud of the revitalization of our capital city and hope the council does the right thing by repealing this therapy ban before we have to consider any local government funding reversal.

If it does not, however, I intend to push forward with my efforts to continue to compel the city to repeal this overreaching therapy ban.

Free speech matters, religious liberty is essential, and my efforts this year during the budget debate were designed to protect both as it pertains to Columbia’s conversion therapy ban that I have sought to repeal since 2021.