What Happened with Columbia’s Conversion Therapy Ban?

What Happened with Columbia’s Conversion Therapy Ban?

In 2021, the City of Columbia made history as the first municipality in South Carolina to pass an ordinance banning licensed mental health providers from performing so-called “conversion therapy” on LGBTQ+ minors. The ordinance (2021-021) prohibited licensed professionals from attempts to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, citing the city’s compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors.

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The ban was rooted in overwhelming medical consensus: major professional organizations have long recognized conversion therapy as dangerous, unscientific, and linked to serious harms, including depression and suicidality in LGBTQ+ youth. For many in Columbia, the law was both a practical safeguard and a symbolic statement that LGBTQ+ young people deserve safety, dignity, and affirmation.

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Why the City Revisited the Ban in 2025

In 2025, the South Carolina General Assembly inserted a proviso into the state budget that directly targeted local bans on conversion therapy. The proviso said that any city or county with a conversion therapy ban on the books would lose its share of certain state funds. For Columbia, that meant an estimated $3.7 million loss in state aid starting in the budget year that begins July 1, 2025.

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City officials warned that losing this money would leave a “gaping hole” in the general fund—money that helps pay for core services like public safety, parks, trash collection, and infrastructure.With the state budget set to take effect, City Council faced intense pressure: keep the ban and forfeit millions in state dollars, or repeal the ban to protect the city’s operating budget.

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To buy time, council members initially deferred votes on repeal several times while staff explored alternatives. One of the only realistic options they identified was to backfill the lost state aid using Columbia’s hospitality tax (“H-Tax”), a local tax on prepared food and beverages that helps fund tourism, festivals, cultural institutions, and other projects.

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Because much of the H-Tax fund was already committed to long-term projects and community events, city leaders acknowledged that relying on those dollars would likely mean cuts—especially to the arts, festivals, and cultural organizations that make Columbia vibrant.SC Daily Gazette+1 As budget planning moved into the 2026 cycle, council members and staff raised concerns about the long-term strain this approach would place on the H-Tax budget and the city’s ability to sustain commitments to those programs in future years.

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Ultimately, council members who supported repeal argued that keeping the ban in place could force difficult tradeoffs in the city’s budget—particularly around how much hospitality tax revenue would need to be diverted to cover gaps in state funding and how that would shape the city’s H-Tax allocations going into the 2026 budget year.

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Council Votes to Repeal the Ban

On June 17, 2025, Columbia City Council voted 4–3 on first reading to repeal the 2021 conversion therapy ordinance.One week later, on June 24, 2025, the council again voted 4–3 on second and final reading, officially repealing the city’s ban on conversion therapy for minors.

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With that vote, Columbia removed the only local conversion therapy protection in South Carolina, ensuring it would not lose the $3.7 million in state aid tied to the budget proviso. City leaders moved forward with a budget that restored that state funding and reduced the need to rely on hospitality tax transfers to fill the gap.

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For LGBTQ+ advocates, mental health professionals, and community members who spoke out at multiple public hearings, the repeal was a painful step backward. The ordinance had never been heavily enforced, but it mattered as a clear statement that Columbia would not tolerate a practice widely condemned as harmful and discredited.

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Why This Matters

The story of Columbia’s conversion therapy ban—and its repeal—sits at the intersection of local protections, state politics, and budget power. A local ordinance passed to protect LGBTQ+ youth was effectively undone by a state-level financial threat tied to the city’s budget and H-Tax planning.

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For SC Equality, this moment is a reminder that:

• Local wins are fragile when state leaders use budget leverage to override home rule.

• Protecting LGBTQ+ youth requires constant vigilance, not just one-time victories.

• Budget decisions are values decisions—where and how money flows affects whose safety and dignity are prioritized.

 

This is why SC Equality continues to track these developments, support local and state partners, and advocate for long-term protections that cannot be easily stripped away.