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What Galop gets wrong about conversion therapy

A Pride march in London last year. Credit: Getty.

January 27, 2023 - 3:39pm

On the same day that Alister Jack made the Section 35 order to block the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, culture secretary Michelle Donelan announced a bill to ban “conversion practices” in England and Wales. She gave a special mention to “those targeted on the basis of their sexuality, or being transgender”.

Let’s be clear: abusive and coercive practices are already illegal. So why do we need a new bill? What is there left to ban? A report published yesterday by Galop, an LGBT+ charity, perhaps gives us an insight. Galop is not a neutral observer. It heads up the list of 79 LGBT+ organisations that form the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition, a well organised campaign. The report’s key findings suggested that nearly one in five LGBT+ people in the UK have been subjected to conversion practices; among trans people that figure rose to 43%. 

I am trans and I have spent a considerable time in the trans community. I do not believe that almost half my demographic has been subjected to practices that have not already been banned, should be banned, or can be banned. Such headlines are in my view irresponsible fearmongering, and potentially harmful to young people who might imagine that there is an army of conversion therapists ready to whisk them away for a quack cure.

However, the report itself perhaps sheds more light on what is really happening than what Galop might have anticipated. The questions were not published in the report but some of the answers were, and I quote here:

“I was raped by men who told me I wouldn’t like it (be gay) anymore after that”

“Being sent to a therapist to try and make me not trans. [It] Scarred me and destroyed the relationship with my parents.”

“My partner ended our relationship because of God and then the people from church prayed for us to become straight.”

“Family member limited internet access so [I] wasn’t able to see anything relating to my sexuality.”

According to Galop, this is what conversion practices “look like”. The first is horrific, but already illegal. No new law is needed to criminalise rape. As for the final example, does Galop seriously think that it should be a crime for parents to limit their children’s internet access? Or maybe this happened to an adult, in which case I would suggest that they paid for their own access. The second and third cases should worry us all.

Exploratory therapy should challenge the client. When I transitioned eleven years ago, my therapist led me through the alternatives to transition. I’m glad she did — otherwise I may well now be thinking, “Did I really need to do that?” If, however, I had misinterpreted the reason for her questions, according to Galop, she might have been guilty of conversion therapy. The potential impact on psychotherapy is chilling.

Meanwhile, should it be a crime for anyone to end a relationship? Whether God gets the blame is immaterial. And should the UK State start legislating on the acceptability of prayer ministry, then we can stop giving sermons to those repressive regimes that restrict and control churches which minister within their territories.

Galop’s report is a perhaps unintended warning of where the state might go if it were granted new powers to control professional therapists, religious organisations and family life. Really, we do not need a new law. We just need to enforce those that are already in place.


Debbie Hayton is a teacher and a transgender campaigner.

DebbieHayton

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Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
1 year ago

I remain totally and utterly gobsmacked that this is an issue. Minors should NEVER be allowed to have life-altering elective surgery. Why does the state even tolerate this kind of discussion? Oh ya, these are the same people who thought it was wonderful to inject five year olds with a vaccine for an illness that didn’t affect them.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
1 year ago

I remain totally and utterly gobsmacked that this is an issue. Minors should NEVER be allowed to have life-altering elective surgery. Why does the state even tolerate this kind of discussion? Oh ya, these are the same people who thought it was wonderful to inject five year olds with a vaccine for an illness that didn’t affect them.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
1 year ago

Of course, those advocating against conversion therapy must also recognize that the groups they claim to serve engage in far more aggressive forms of conversion therapy themselves.

https://welcomingschools.org/resources/lesson-plans-gender-identity-transgender-non-binary

https://genderspectrum.org/articles/educator-resources

https://ok2bme.ca/resources/parents-educators/resources-for-schools-and-classrooms/

I can’t think of any greater examples of wholesale psychosexual child abuse that what’s being done under the banner of LGBQT inclusion in American public schools. It is no wonder that a record number of parents are electing to homeschool their children. If one good thing came out of the pandemic, it was that parents were confronted with the ‘conversion therapy’ provided by public school educators and the attempts school made to cover it up:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tennessee-parents-forced-sign-waiver-113531838.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANuC2Rl3MgLmocMPEUpQJQXaJp1L9_vrrFID2lUXL1pHBN4zMW1MK6xHEOtgtFZYYSkqt4IRqhOJ2OFKI-s28yQY18zcfmR7nbPUtXnlsOVqoG_OfO87-c6DOEj3cLZvwOFeE7MQbJ3uMpAOqN0wNOZfaiXEk4Ip5plKsnpqQdxz

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
1 year ago

Of course, those advocating against conversion therapy must also recognize that the groups they claim to serve engage in far more aggressive forms of conversion therapy themselves.

https://welcomingschools.org/resources/lesson-plans-gender-identity-transgender-non-binary

https://genderspectrum.org/articles/educator-resources

https://ok2bme.ca/resources/parents-educators/resources-for-schools-and-classrooms/

I can’t think of any greater examples of wholesale psychosexual child abuse that what’s being done under the banner of LGBQT inclusion in American public schools. It is no wonder that a record number of parents are electing to homeschool their children. If one good thing came out of the pandemic, it was that parents were confronted with the ‘conversion therapy’ provided by public school educators and the attempts school made to cover it up:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tennessee-parents-forced-sign-waiver-113531838.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANuC2Rl3MgLmocMPEUpQJQXaJp1L9_vrrFID2lUXL1pHBN4zMW1MK6xHEOtgtFZYYSkqt4IRqhOJ2OFKI-s28yQY18zcfmR7nbPUtXnlsOVqoG_OfO87-c6DOEj3cLZvwOFeE7MQbJ3uMpAOqN0wNOZfaiXEk4Ip5plKsnpqQdxz

Brian Villanueva
Brian Villanueva
1 year ago

Let’s say I walk into my doctor’s office: “Doc, I think I’m a dragon.” Two possible responses to this come to mind…
“What makes you think you’re a dragon?”
“I’ll get you scheduled for a tail graft and a flame thrower implant.”
The first of these is “conversion therapy”. The second is “affirmative care”. In any other setting we would understand the absurdity of this.

Brian Villanueva
Brian Villanueva
1 year ago

Let’s say I walk into my doctor’s office: “Doc, I think I’m a dragon.” Two possible responses to this come to mind…
“What makes you think you’re a dragon?”
“I’ll get you scheduled for a tail graft and a flame thrower implant.”
The first of these is “conversion therapy”. The second is “affirmative care”. In any other setting we would understand the absurdity of this.

Arkadian X
Arkadian X
1 year ago

“Galop, an LGBT+ charity”
Ok, a “what” charity? What are the aims of an LGBT+ charity? How can they possibly advocate for competing groups.
I would say this is obfuscation, hence the ensuing confusion.

Arkadian X
Arkadian X
1 year ago

“Galop, an LGBT+ charity”
Ok, a “what” charity? What are the aims of an LGBT+ charity? How can they possibly advocate for competing groups.
I would say this is obfuscation, hence the ensuing confusion.

Dougie Undersub
Dougie Undersub
1 year ago

Of those four examples, only one could be considered therapy. Hint: it’s the one with the word therapy in it.

Dougie Undersub
Dougie Undersub
1 year ago

Of those four examples, only one could be considered therapy. Hint: it’s the one with the word therapy in it.

Cindy Jarvis
Cindy Jarvis
1 year ago

Like the increasing number of trans ‘hate crimes’ the police are recording. MSM & more importantly our politicians who are considering the Conversion Conversation Bill should be investigating the facts. No legislation should be created without there being scrutiny of the proposals & the evidence for & against. That’s how the Scot Gov got it wrong on the GRR & look how well that’s going.

Last edited 1 year ago by Cindy Jarvis
Cindy Jarvis
Cindy Jarvis
1 year ago

Like the increasing number of trans ‘hate crimes’ the police are recording. MSM & more importantly our politicians who are considering the Conversion Conversation Bill should be investigating the facts. No legislation should be created without there being scrutiny of the proposals & the evidence for & against. That’s how the Scot Gov got it wrong on the GRR & look how well that’s going.

Last edited 1 year ago by Cindy Jarvis