Madison, WI - The National Association of Social Workers Wisconsin Chapter (NASW-WI) applauds the Wisconsin State Supreme Court’s decision today in Tony Evers v. Howard Marklein. The court’s final decision reaffirms the ability of professions in Wisconsin to set their own conduct code as well as stop the extremely harmful practice of conversion therapy.
“After seven and a half years of trying to ban the harmful, discredited and unethical practice of conversion therapy and having the rule repeatedly blocked by the Joint Committee on the Review of Administrative Rules, I am thrilled by this ruling,” NASW Wisconsin Chapter Executive Director Marc Herstand said. “Professions have the right to establish their own conduct code, and no social worker should ever engage in the practice of conversion therapy.”
The continuous suspensions of the rule represented legislative overreach in the rule-making process and threatened the ability of professions in Wisconsin to create their standards. As outlined in state statutes Section 15.08 (intro.) and (b) and a June 2020 legislature memo, professional boards can create ethical standards. Section 457.03 (2) (intro) and (b) statutes grant that authority to the Examining Board of Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Counseling, and Social Work.
Conversion therapy is a discredited and extremely harmful practice that attempts to cause an individual identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gender-nonconforming (“LGBT”) to abandon that identity and adopt and/or exhibit a heterosexual sexual orientation and gender identity consistent with the one assigned to them at birth.
Experts have described the practice as torture. Conversion therapy has included, both historically and today, enforcing rigid gender roles through talk therapy, repeating homophobic or transphobic slurs, isolation from friends and family, “corrective” rape, exorcism, and aversion “therapies” such as using electrical shock devices or nausea-inducing medication to induce a negative response to stimuli associated with being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
The practice is associated with increased depression, psychological distress, substance use, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts as well as lower educational attainment and lower weekly incomes.
About The National Association of Social Workers Wisconsin Chapter:
Founded in 1955, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with more than 120,000 members. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies.
NASW-WI’s mission is to foster community by advancing the profession through education, ethics, professional standards, and advocacy to serve diverse populations.