Ben Seidler Q&A: ‘I Believe This Ordinance Does Nothing Beyond Serving to Divide Our Community’

Like most, the man representing the people of Ward 2 in Wheeling had to look it up.

“Conversion therapy.”

Once armed with an understanding and after reading the actually proposed ordinance, Councilman Ben Seidler started asking questions to anyone connected to mental health therapy. He then considered the implications, the actual threat to parental rights, and the actual proven truths connected to such a ban.

Seidler was not attendance two weeks ago for Council regular meeting because of personal matter, but he watched the video and reviewed the letter written by The Most Rev. Mark Brennan and read by Tim Bishop, Communications Director of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Seidler requested a meeting with Bishop Brennan last week to seek even more of an understanding about what he, one of seven members of a governing body representing approximately 28,000 residents, was being asked to vote on.

And he was granted that audience. Now, after serious contemplation, Councilman Seidler has decided his vote, and his reasons for it. Today’s regular meeting is scheduled for Noon today in City Council Chambers on the first floor of the Ohio County Courthouse. The vote is on Council’s agenda under “Unfinished Business” and is defined as, “Amending and reenacting Article 169 – Human Rights Commission.”

Novotney:  When deciding how you would vote on banning conversation therapy in the City of Wheeling, what was most important in your mind?

Seidler: As a fundamental core value and quite frankly a core obligation, I am in favor of allowing a parent to be a parent, not the government being a parent. I fully support our LGBTQ community and there is not a person on this Earth who could say otherwise, but I strongly believe that it is a parent’s responsibility to raise their children and not the government’s responsibility to tell them how to do so,  especially not the local city government.

Novotney: Do you think most Wheeling residents have cared enough about this issue to read the actually proposed ordinance?

Seidler: Probably not, but for those of you who are actually interested in what this ordinance literally states, beyond just the polarizing one sentence headline which I believe is the entire basis behind this effort, I still would encourage you to actually read it. Don’t just forward the form email because someone told you to. Read the ordinance before you say you support it.

The child from Ohio who presented this concern to Wheeling City Council on behalf of his friend shared that his friend was forced to undergo conversation therapy by a religious leader, but this ordinance exempts religious institutions from the ban. Read that again. This ordinance already says in black and white, in no uncertain terms, that religious organizations are exempt from this ban. Based on my interpretation of this ordinance, there is no enforcement mechanism or penalty for violating it.

Interestingly enough, I don’t know of a single, licensed mental health professional in this day and age that would ever offer conversion therapy services, and the multiple professionals I have spoken to indicated they would lose their license in an instant.

Novotney: That’s why you believe this proposed ordinance has very little with conversion therapy?

Seidler: I believe this ordinance does nothing beyond serving to divide our community on a controversial topic and I have yet to see any proof of this actually being a problem here. According to every single mental health professional I have spoken to this is just not happening in the context of licensed mental health providers. If it’s happening within the context of religious organizations, this ordinance does absolutely nothing to stop that.

I have no place for discrimination in any fashion but legislating how a parent is to raise their children is an extremely slippery slope that I want no part of. And I question where it ends. In my opinion this ordinance is nothing more than an attempt to grab headlines as a political stepping stone for others.

I will say it one more time. I am a strong supporter of our LGBTQ community and I have no place whatsoever for discrimination on any level. I will love and fully support my children no matter what their sexual identity or orientation may be, but I don’t appreciate being used as a pawn for political gain by passing ordinances under the premise of making a difference that have no actual teeth to actually be effective.

I don’t have the authority to tell anyone how to raise their children, and those pushing for this stunt are not going to tell me how to raise mine. For those reasons and those reasons alone, I will not support this ordinance during today’s regular meeting of Wheeling City Council.