This Tuesday a proposal is coming to the Wheeling City Council from their Human Rights Commission that takes up an issue of critical importance — banning conversion therapy in our fair city.

Never heard of conversion therapy?

Well, pay close attention.

I submit to you that conversion therapy is a dangerous practice which has no business in the city of Wheeling or any other place for that matter, and now the time has come for the good citizens of Wheeling to have a serious conversation about how we want to live out our obligations to our friends and neighbors, especially the youth and young adults of Wheeling.

Conversion therapy is a set of practices that intends to change a person’s sexuality or gender identity. Nearly every significant medical, mental health and professional organization and agency in the United States has renounced this practice as it can rely on conventional talk therapy, prayer, re-education and aversion therapy including electroshock or vomit-inducing chemical compounds to accomplish its purposes, while the cold hard reality is that there is no documented evidence that conversion therapy works — at all — and in fact at least anecdotal evidence suggests it may be incredibly harmful.

Recent local headlines have promoted Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Mark Brennan’s opposition to the conversion therapy ban proposed in our city.

I know Mark Brennan and I know him to be a good and decent man. We have worked together on several interfaith projects, including the Bishop’s recent, church-based initiative to confront domestic violence, a cause near and dear to my heart. However, clearly conversion therapy is one area where not only the Bishop and I disagree but so do our respective faith traditions.

People of good faith can surely disagree and still be people of good faith but on this matter the stakes are simply too high for those of us who realize the dangers of conversion therapy to keep silent.

Roman Catholic social teaching has chosen to oppose bans on conversion therapy largely under the guise of parental rights.

However in 2016 The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) publicly directed agencies in the denomination to “refrain from supporting, sponsoring, or implementing therapies or ministries that attempt to alter a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” Furthermore Presbyterian Social Witness Policy calls on us to “support national, federal, state, and local legislation to prohibit licensed mental health practitioners from subjecting minors to ‘conversion therapy’ practices.”

Additionally, in that same year the PC(USA) issued a statement expressing our “regret” and “sorrow” at the pain the church has caused LGBTQ people. Those who undergo the pain of conversion therapy are apt to suffer from depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and even suicide. And many of them are youth and young adults!

Do we “regret” this? Have we sufficiently expressed our “sorrow” over subjecting LGBTQ folks to this kind of assault? How much longer will we let the violence of conversion therapy kill our kids and our queer community?

We have the opportunity to put an end to this nonsense in our fair city.

The question is even though we have the opportunity to end this do we have the will to ban conversion therapy from the city of Wheeling? Fundamentally the underlining presumption in conversion therapy is that there is simply something wrong with LGBTQ people; they’re “bad,” “sinful” or in need of “changing” or “repair,” and on this matter I know that people of good faith disagree. But since LGBTQ kids who are subjected to conversion therapy are nearly 8 ½ times more likely to be suicidal, the question then becomes do these LGBTQ kids deserve to die for their “sins?”

Again, conversion therapy is a dangerous practice that is killing our kids. It has no place in therapeutic practice nor in religious community. It has no place in the city of Wheeling or the state of West Virginia. We can put an end to the practice of conversion therapy in our fair city and demonstrate overwhelming concern and support for our LGBTQ friends and neighbors.

Please urge your city council to vote yes to ban conversion therapy in Wheeling.

The Rev. Erica Harley is pastor of Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church in Wheeling.