Local
Virginia ‘ex-gay’ group to defy new ban on conversion therapy
‘Brothers on a Road Less Traveled’ maintains it doesn’t accept minors
A Virginia-based group that runs personal workshops for gay men “who are conflicted over their same-sex attractions” said Tuesday it has no plans whatsoever to cease or change operations in the aftermath of Gov. Ralph Northam signing into law a prohibition on widely discredited conversion therapy.
“I don’t see how this applies to us at all,” said Rich Wyler, founder and director of “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled,” one of the more prominent groups that conducts programs seen as reparative therapy and promises men an alternative to identifying as gay.
Asked by the Washington Blade to affirm that means “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled” won’t change anything in aftermath of the new Virginia law, Wyler replied, “That’s correct.”
Northam on Tuesday signed the bill prohibiting conversion therapy for youth, making Virginia the first state in the South with such a ban. A total of 20 states and D.C. have similar laws on the books.
The practice of therapy aimed at changing an individual’s sexual orientation or transgender status is considered ineffectual at best and harmful at worst. Major medical and psychological institutions — including American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics — widely reject the practice.
But Wyler via email to the Washington Blade rejected on two grounds the idea the new Virginia law applies to “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled,” even though the organization is headquartered in Ruckersville, Va.
First, Wyler disputed the idea the organization offers “conversion therapy” as prohibited under the new Virginia law.
Instead, Wyler called the organization a “peer-support group” and said it runs “personal-growth workshops especially for men who are conflicted over their SSA who are looking for peace within the boundaries of their faith and values.”
Second, Wyler insisted the group has “never allowed minors in our program nor reached out to them in any way,” pointing to a post on the organization’s website asserting “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled” requires all participants to be at least age 21 and the average age is 36.
Bans on conversion therapy in other states also don’t seem have hampered “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled,” which operates workshops across the nation and online through webinars. Among the states where an upcoming workshop is scheduled is Utah, where Gov. Gary Herbert recently prohibited conversion therapy for youth through regulation.
“Brothers on a Road Less Traveled” also operates internationally. Another workshop is scheduled in Poland, which has become renowned for its homophobia now that one-third of the country has been designated as “LGBT-free zones.”
The new Virginia ban on conversion therapy, much like laws in other states, is limited in scope.
For starters, it applies only to medical and mental health practitioners, threatening to revoke their licenses if they engage in conversion therapy. Other organizations and individuals, including churches and clergy, are allowed to engage in the practice or otherwise LGBTQ people not to be LGBTQ.
Ministers would likely have a First Amendment right consistent with their religious beliefs to encourage LGBTQ people, including LGBTQ youth, to change their sexual orientation or gender identity despite those being innate characteristics.
Further, the measures apply only to youth. Even medical and mental health practitioners can offer conversion therapy to adults — and take money for the practice — if those adults on their own volition wish to undergo the practice despite evidence demonstrating it’s ineffective.
“No person licensed pursuant to this subtitle or who performs counseling as part of his training for any profession licensed pursuant to this subtitle shall engage in conversion therapy with a person under 18 years of age,” the Virginia law says. “Any conversion therapy efforts with a person under 18 years of age engaged in by a provider licensed in accordance with the provisions of this subtitle or who performs counseling as part of his training for any profession licensed pursuant to this subtitle shall constitute unprofessional conduct and shall be grounds for disciplinary action by the appropriate health regulatory board within the Department of Health Professions.”
Likely because they’re limited in scope, the state laws are uncontroversial. Numerous governors — Democratic and Republican alike — have signed them into law. Although former Maine Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the measure in the state, the move was corrected by subsequent Gov. Janet Mills, who signed the legislation into law.
Formerly known as “People Can Change,” the Virginia-based group “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled” has faced challenges to its operations before. In 2016, the Human Rights Campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, accusing the group of illegally engaging in fraud.
But years later, “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled” is still in operation and the only thing that appears to have changed about the organization is it’s name. The FTC has refused to comment to the Washington Blade on the state of the complaint filed by the Human Rights Campaign.
The Human Rights Campaign didn’t respond to the Blade’s request to comment on “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled” remaining in operation in the aftermath of the new Virginia law.
Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, warned “Brothers on a Road Less Traveled” it may still be running afoul of the law if it’s charging money for its practices.
“If they are not targeting minors, the law does not directly affect them; however, if they are charging money, they are likely violating Virginia’s consumer fraud laws and can be sued by anyone who pays them money in exchange for their bogus claims that they can help a gay person become straight,” Minter said.
Minter concluded under its earlier moniker “People Can Change,” one of the group’s founders Dave Matheson has publicly admitted its claims it can help people change their sexual orientation are false.
Maryland
What Anne Arundel County school board candidates think about book bans
State lawmakers passed Freedom to Read Act in April
BY ROYALE BONDS | Parents’ efforts to restrict content available to students in school libraries has become a contentious issue in Maryland. Conservative parent groups, such as Moms for Liberty, have been working to get books they believe are inappropriate removed from libraries in Carroll and Howard counties, sparking protests, new policies, and even a state law.
The Freedom to Read Act, passed in April, sets standards that books cannot be removed from public and school libraries due to an author’s background. Library staff that uphold the standard are protected under this act. The law, however, does not prohibit removing books deemed “sexually explicit,” the stated reason local Moms for Liberty chapters challenged school library books.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner website.
District of Columbia
D.C. Council member proposes change for Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs
Parker also seeks increased funding for LGBTQ programs in FY 2025 budget
D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only LGBTQ member, has asked his fellow Council members to support a proposal to change the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs to become a “stand-alone entity outside the Executive Office of the Mayor to allow for greater transparency and accountability that reflects its evolution over the years.”
In an April 30 letter to each of his 12 fellow Council members, Parker said he plans to introduce an amendment to the city’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Support Act to make this change for the LGBTQ Affairs Office.
His letter also calls for adding to the city’s FY 2025 budget two specific funding proposals that local LGBTQ activists submitted to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser that the mayor did not include in her budget proposal submitted to the Council. One calls for $1.5 million to fund the completion of the build out and renovation for the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community’s new building in the city’s Shaw neighborhood and $300,000 in subsequent years to support the LGBTQ Center’s operations.
Parker’s second budget proposal calls for what he said was about $450,000 to fund 20 additional dedicated LGBTQ housing vouchers as part of the city’s existing program to provide emergency housing support for LGBTQ residents and other residents facing homelessness.
“The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs currently manages about 90 vouchers across various programs and needs,” Parker said in his letter to fellow Council members. “Adding an additional 20 vouchers will cost roughly $450,000,” he wrote, adding that dedicated vouchers “play a crucial role in ensuring LGBTQ+ residents of the District can navigate the complex process of securing housing placements.”
In her proposed FY ’25 budget, Bowser calls for a 7.6 percent increase in funding for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which amounts to an increase of $132,000, bringing the office’s total funding to $1.7 million.
“To be clear, I support the strong work and current leadership of the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs,” Parker says in his letter to fellow Council members. “This push for change is in recognition of the office’s notable achievements and the significant demands being placed on it, which require a greater level of accountability.”
Parker told the Blade in an April 30 telephone interview that he believes Japer Bowles, the current director of the Office of L|GBTQ Affairs is doing an excellent job in operating the office, but he believes the office would be able to do more for the LGBTQ community under the change he is proposing.
“Making it a stand-alone office versus it being clustered within the Community Affairs division of the mayor’s office, it will get more attention,” Parker told the Blade. “The leadership will have greater flexibility to advocate for the interest of LGBTQ residents, And we will be able to conduct greater oversight of the office,” he said, referring to the Council’s oversight process.
Parker noted that other community constituent offices in the mayor’s office, including the Office of Latino Affairs and the Office of Veterans Affairs are stand-alone offices that he hopes to bring about for the LGBTQ Affairs Office. He said Council member Brianne Nadeau, who chairs the Council committee that has oversight for the LGBTQ Affairs Office, has expressed support for his proposal.
Also expressing support for Parker’s proposal to make the LGBTQ Affairs Office a stand-alone office is the D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission Rainbow Caucus. Vincent Slatt, the caucus’s chairperson, submitted testimony last week before the D.C. Council Committee on Public Works and Operations, which is chaired by Nadeau, calling for making the LGBTQ Affairs Office a stand-alone office outside the Executive Office of the Mayor.
Slatt also stated in his testimony that the office has a “chronic staffing shortage” and recommended that at least three additional staff members be assigned to the office.
Daniel Gleick, the mayor’s press secretary, told the Blade the mayor’s office is reviewing Parker’s budget proposals, including the proposed change for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
But in testimony at a May 1, D.C. Council budget hearing before the Council’s Committee on Executive Administration and Labor, Lindsey Parker, Mayor Bowser’s Chief of Staff, appeared to express skepticism over making the LGBTQ Affairs office a stand-alone office. Lindsey Parker expressed her thoughts on the proposed change when asked about it by Councilmember Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), who chairs the committee that held the hearing.
“I would proffer that it doesn’t matter whether the agency is within the EOM [Executive Office of the Mayor] or not,” Lindsey Parker told Bonds. “They will still be reporting up into one would argue the most important agency in the D.C. government, which is the one that supports the mayor,” Lindsey Parker said. “So, it’s the closest to the mayor that you can get,” she said “So, you could pull it out and have a different budget chapter. I actually think that’s confusing and convoluted.”
Lindsey Parker added, “The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, with their six FTEs right now, if they were a stand-alone function they wouldn’t have all the non-personnel services in order to operate. They need to be under sort of the shop of the EOM in order to get those resources.”
By FETs Lindsey Parker was referring to the term Full Time Equivalent employees.
Rehoboth Beach
Former CAMP Rehoboth official sentenced to nine months in prison
Salvator Seeley pleaded guilty to felony theft charge for embezzlement
Salvator “Sal” Seeley, who served as an official with the Rehoboth Beach, Del., CAMP Rehoboth LGBTQ community center for 20 years, was sentenced on April 5 by a Sussex County Superior Court judge to nine months in prison and to pay $176,000 in restitution to the organization.
The sentencing took place about five weeks after Seeley pleaded guilty to a charge of Theft in Excess of $50,000 for allegedly embezzling funds from CAMP Rehoboth, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice told the Washington Blade.
Seeley’s guilty plea came shortly after a grand jury, at the request of prosecutors, indicted him on the felony theft charge following an investigation that found he had embezzled at least $176,000 from the nonprofit LGBTQ organization.
“Salvatore C. Seeley, between the 27th day of February 2019 and the 7th day of September 2021, in the County of Sussex, State of Delaware, did take property belonging to CAMP Rehoboth, Inc., consisting of United States currency and other miscellaneous property valued at more than $50,000, intending to appropriate the same,” the indictment states.
“The State recommended a sentence of two years of incarceration based on the large-scale theft and the impact to the non-profit organization,” Delaware Department of Justice spokesperson Caroline Harrison told the Blade in a statement.
“The defense cited Seeley’s lack of a record and gambling addiction in arguing for a probationary sentence,” the statement says. “Seeley was sentenced in Superior Court to a nine-month prison term and to pay a total of $176,000 in restitution for the stolen funds,” Harrison says in the statement.
Neither Seeley nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment.
At the time of Seeley’s indictment in February, CAMP Rehoboth released a statement saying it first discovered “financial irregularities” within the organization on Sept. 7, 2021, “and took immediate action and notified state authorities.” The statement says this resulted in the investigation of Seeley by the state Department of Justice as well as an internal investigation by CAMP Rehoboth to review its “financial control policies” that led to an updating of those policies.
“As we have communicated from day one, CAMP Rehoboth has fully cooperated with law enforcement,” the statement continues. “At its request, we did not speak publicly about the investigation while it was ongoing for fear it would jeopardize its integrity,” according to the statement. “This was extremely difficult given our commitment to transparency with the community about day-to-day operations during the recent leadership transition.”
The statement was referring to Kim Leisey, who began her job as CAMP Rehoboth’s new executive director in July of 2023, while the Seeley investigation had yet to be completed, following the organization’s process of searching for a new director. It says Seeley left his job as Health and Wellness Director of CAMP Rehoboth in September of 2021 after working for the organization for more than 20 years.
“Mr. Seeley’s actions are a deep betrayal to not only CAMP Rehoboth but also the entire community we serve,” the statement says.
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