The American Counseling Association (ACA) announced on Tuesday that it was canceling its 2017 conference in Nashville, Tennessee because of a state law allowing counselors to reject LGBT clients, the Tennessean reported.
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Tennessee became the latest state to sign into law discriminatory “religious freedom” legislation targeting the counseling profession and LGBTQ community, permitting counselors to deny services and refer clients based on the provider’s “strongly held principles” a clear violation of the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics.
“If the new law is allowed to stand, we can not in good conscience bring business to Tennessee”, said the group’s chief executive officer, Richard Yep, in an online video (watch below) announcing the decision today.
“This does show what the power of professional associations can do to bring people together-in this case our members-and to help them unite on issues of common concern”, Yep said. The Convention and Visitors Corp. estimates that the ACA convention would have generated $2.5 million in direct visitor spending and $444,609 in total tax revenue for the state and city.
Supporters of the law have said that it keeps the government from forcing people to counsel others to act in ways that conflict with a therapist’s moral beliefs.
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and tourist officials in the Music City have vocally opposed the legislation and warned of a possible backlash.
Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation, said in a statement that the cancellation was “disappointing” but not a surprise. “It is regrettable that all the hard work and investment to make Nashville a top destination has been unnecessarily undone by politics”. Its CEO Richard Yep says HB 1840 is “discriminatory” and “targets” LGBT people. They have maintained that laws are still in place to prevent counselors from abandoning or discriminating against patients based on sexual preference or identity.
He has previously said that law has been misunderstood and mischaracterized as something that allows counselors to turn patients away.
The gravity of the situation that occurred in Tennessee was such that we had to make a major decision because of the new law.
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Jennifer Donnals, a spokeswoman for Haslam, reacted to the cancellation by saying, “They had said they were considering that, and they won’t experience all that Tennessee has to offer”, reports Nashville newspaper The Tennessean.
