The Lawrence City Commission will discuss the city’s conversion therapy ban at an open meeting in response to demands from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach to revoke it.
Kobach sent letters to Lawrence, Prairie Village and Roeland Park Thursday, July 23, alleging that the three cities’ conversion therapy bans violated the First Amendment. He gave the cities 60 days to respond.
Cori Wallace, city spokesperson, said via email that the city responded to Kobach “and communicated the Commissioners intention to discuss at an upcoming Commission meeting.”
The meeting hasn’t been scheduled, but should take place in the next few months, Wallace said. Community members can give public comment at that time.
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Conversion therapy practices target the LGBTQ+ community by trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
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Per the American Psychological Association, conversion therapy is not evidence-based, and studies show the practices to be ineffective and dangerous. Conversion therapy isn’t banned in Kansas, but 27 other states and Washington, D.C. ban or regulate it.
In his letters, Kobach cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in March that said a Colorado law banning youth conversion therapy violated First Amendment speech protections. The Colorado General Assembly updated the legislation to comply with the ruling while still banning conversion therapy.
Lawrence instituted a ban on conversion therapy for minors in 2021 through Ordinance 9828. It outlaws anyone from practicing, aiding or contracting with a provider “to offer or purport to offer Conversion Therapy.”
The ordinance also bans people or entities from advertising or using the words “Conversion Therapy, ex-gay therapy, sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, or any substantially similar wording.”
In his letter, Kobach wrote that Lawrence’s ban is viewpoint discrimination violating the First Amendment.
He also wrote that “The outright prohibition of the use of the listed terms, including ‘any substantially similar wording,’ is an obvious violation of the First Amendment. And it is so vague that it also likely violates the Fourteenth Amendment.”
On Monday, Prairie Village and Roeland Park both updated rather than repealed their bans, in line with Colorado, the Johnson County Post reported.
Now, any practices aiming to “direct a patient toward a predetermined sexual orientation or gender identity outcome … regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity the patient is directed toward” are banned.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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