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Pittsburgh's City Council adopted Pennsylvania's first ban on "conversion therapy" or "ex-gay therapy" for minors in the city during a meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016. Photo via Pixabay.

Pittsburgh has formally adopted Pennsylvania's first ban on the controversial practice of "conversion" or "ex-gay" therapy for minors, weeks after it first proposed the measure amid mounting post-election anxiety.

The bill was approved at Tuesday's meeting of City Council by a 9-to-0 margin. This after it passed 8-to-0, with 1 abstention, in a first reading vote last week.

Once enacted, the ban will prohibit mental health professionals within the city's limits from conducting conversion therapy sessions on minors. The practice, one typically meant to turn gay and lesbian people straight, or transgender people cisgender, has been widely discredited and is opposed by a plethora of medical and psychiatric organizations.

Under Pittsburgh's ban, offenders can be fined $300 for each offense and sentenced to up to 30 days in prison for failure to pay.

The city is the first to adopt such a ban in Pennsylvania and officials say they hope others will follow suit.

"I can only hope other cities and boroughs across the state do this and that the Senate hears us," Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak said prior to last Wednesday's first reading vote on the ban.

"Because we really do need statewide protection from this."

Philadelphia also began efforts to ban conversion therapy there this month, while previous efforts to ban the practice at the state level have stalled.

According to the Equality Federation, there are 5 states (California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont) plus the District of Columbia with laws that prohibit state-licensed mental health professionals from engaging in efforts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of persons under the age of 18. Additionally, the cities of Cincinnati and Seattle have banned conversion therapy, along with 6 cities in South Florida (Bay Harbor Islands, Miami, Miami Beach, North Bay Village, West Palm Beach and Wilton Manors).

Pittsburgh's inclusion on that list comes just weeks after the election of Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence prompted calls from local LGBTQ groups and activists to pit the city's liberal identity against the Trump-Pence agenda.

This led to, or renewed, calls for a conversion therapy ban amid fear for the future of LGBTQ rights under Trump and, more specifically, under Pence. Pence is well known for his rigid and oppositional stance on LGBTQ issues through the years, but while his name has become synonymous with official support for conversion therapy, Pence denies having ever supported the practice. Regardless, many in the LGBTQ community see him as a threat and fear his growing influence.

The response has included a push for new LGBTQ-focused and LGBTQ-supportive policy in places like Pittsburgh and New York State, where a lawmaker recently introduced a conversion therapy ban titled the Prevention of Emotional Neglect and Childhood Endangerment Act -- or PENCE for short.

In addition, a handful of American cities say they'll refuse to assist the Trump-Pence administration if it follows through on vows to deport large numbers of undocumented immigrants across the country. The announcement comes as the cities stake their identities as progressive and open-armed bastions against the crackdowns promised by the Trump-Pence campaign.

In Pittsburgh, city officials said they're even considering a formal "sanctuary city" declaration, one signaling a city-wide policy of sheltering those residents in the country illegally instead of working to deport them.

Meanwhile, the city's conversion therapy ban for minors had at least one resident concerned that the council was overstepping its authority.

Mark Brentley Sr., a former member of the Pittsburgh Public Schools' Board, spoke before last week's first reading vote and took issue with the council wading into the conversion therapy debate and national politics. He also questioned whether their attempt to ban conversion therapy amounted to interfering with parental rights.

"You shouldn't be in the business of how I raise my child. ... And in our community there are a lot of other pressing issues," Brentley said.

He listed jobs, training opportunities and equity in employment as being among those issues.

But others who spoke at the meeting supported the ban, often in emotional pleas to council to end the human suffering wrought by conversion therapy.

Councilman Dan Gilman echoed this sentiment after Tuesday's final vote. Gilman introduced the ban proposal with Council President Bruce Kraus in late November.

"I am thrilled that my colleagues joined with me to ban this barbaric behavior," Gilman said in an email to PennLive. "The City has a responsibility to protect the physical, emotional, and mental health of our children - and City Council took an important step forward in doing that today."

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include comment from Councilman Dan Gilman and reference to Philadelphia's conversion therapy ban proposal.