WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) — Westerville voted on Tuesday to become the 13th city in Ohio to ban anti-LGBTQ+ practices known as “conversion therapy” that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Westerville City Council passed the ordinance 5-2 to prohibit healthcare professionals in the city from engaging in conversion therapy with minors. While one speaker argued the measure would infringe on parental rights, all other residents who spoke during the meeting championed the ordinance and said it is needed given several bills passed the Statehouse last year that opponents deem “anti-LGBTQ+.”

The city is joining 12 other municipalities in Ohio, including Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Reynoldsburg, that have already banned the practices. Brandon West, a 23-year-old Lorain resident, championed his home city last year to become the 12th to ban conversion therapy, and has since begun advocating for Cuyahoga County to do the same.

Westerville’s ordinance was introduced in January and notes that conversion therapy has been discredited by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and more. Conversion therapy utilizes “methods that are in direct violation of the ethical codes outlined by the American Psychological Association.”

“Research shows that minors are more adversely impacted by the practice of conversion therapy, having increased cases of depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness and suicide,” the measure states. “This ordinance protects the psychological wellbeing of minors, including LGBTQIA+ youth, against exposure to the aforementioned harms.”

Practitioners of conversion therapy often employ “aversive conditioning,” which includes the use of electric shock, deprivation of food and liquid, smelling salts and chemical-induced nausea, according to the American Medical Association. A 2021 The Trevor Project survey found that 13% of LGBTQ+ youth nationwide reported being subjected to conversion therapy, with 83% saying it occurred when they were under age 18.

Westerville’s ordinance received support from various community advocates, including faith leaders like United Methodist Rev. Laura Young. In a letter to city council, Young spoke of older LGBTQ+ Ohioans who were subjected to conversion therapy by their parents, “who did not understand what it meant to be gay, who lived in fear of what discrimination against gay people would do to their child.”

“My belief in God and my study of scripture tell me that it is not just wrong, but it is blasphemy to tell a human being, created in the image of God, to be other than who they are,” wrote Young. “It is religion that is typically the motivation behind a desire for conversion therapy, and that kind of religious is based on outdated and wrong interpretations of scripture.”

Mary Gene Boteler, a former Presbyterian pastor, said during the ordinance’s second hearing earlier in February that her daughter was a victim of conversion therapy. When Boteler’s daughter sought help to treat depression during college, her therapist disapproved of her sexuality and “began a process of trying to change her,” she said.

“During her first session, she shared that her parents were accepting of her sexual orientation. The therapist expressed surprised and said, ‘I can’t believe your parents are really proud of who you are,'” said Boteler. “We were livid. We had trusted the recommendation of our insurance company, we had trusted the initials behind this therapist’s name.”

Cities like Westerville are passing bans on conversion therapy because Ohio’s Statehouse hasn’t advanced a proposal to implement a statewide ban. Although former Rep. Mary Lightbody (D-Westerville) introduced the “Anti-Conversion Therapy Act” last year in the General Assembly, which would make law in Ohio similar parameters as Westerville’s measure, the legislation didn’t receive a committee hearing.