The city of Columbia is receiving a demand from the state’s top prosecutor.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says in a letter dated April 22 that the city must repeal a ban on conversion therapy for minors that the council narrowly passed in 2021.

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Wilson said in the letter that his office has “steadfastly maintained a position dedicated to safeguarding, upholding, and advancing the rights of South Carolinians to freely exercise their respective religious beliefs.”

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“Opponents of my position and proponents of this ban are going to use the straw man argument to say that this is anti-gay, this is anti-LGBT or whatever and this is going to hurt people,” Wilson said. “That is as far from the truth as it could possibly be.”

However, advocates like Dylan Gunnels, the president of South Carolina Pride, say the practice does exactly that.

He underwent conversion therapy and founded The Agape Table, a local nonprofit.

“The Attorney General is choosing to disregard facts, data, choosing to disregard all of the major medical associations, whether it’s the American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, American Pediatric Association, who for over a decade have now said that this is a harmful practice that harms LGBTQ youth.”