The country is on its knees, Ukraine is in ruins, and we are running out of fuel and flour. But what makes the headlines? Boris bans conversion therapy. However, it seems to me that depends on how you define ‘conversion therapy’.
The world has moved on considerably since the days when homosexuals were shamed into renouncing their preferences, and a gay man could be imprisoned for a bit of rumpy bum-pee. From the mid nineteenth century, a range of worthies starting with Richard von Krafft-Ebing and taking in the Freuds (Sigmund and his daughter Anna), up to and including Melania Klein proposed that homosexuality could be ‘cured’ in what is now referred to as conversion therapy. Despite falling out of favour within mainstream psychiatry, with the Surgeon General saying that it was not evidence based, and mental health organisations such the American Psychological Association becoming increasingly cautious about promoting it, it still has its advocates. Needless to say, the gay lobby are vehemently opposed to it. Stonewall says: ‘No one should be told their identity is something that can be cured.’
The NHS is opposed to conversion therapy, although it was allegedly still available there until quite recently. Presently, it seems to be the preserve of Christian organisations such as the Christian Union and some groups of churches in, for example, Plymouth and London. These have lobbied against a ban, making them the target of much opprobrium. Now, regardless of where it exists and to whomever it is being offered, it will be banned. Great rejoicing from the gay lobby, but muted celebrations from the transgender lobby, because the ban does not include trans people. It seems there is nothing that makes these poor people happy, which is strange as their particular kind of ‘conversion therapy’ seems to be all the rage.
If you’re a man and you have the slightest inkling that you may, despite the physical evidence to the contrary, be a woman then you can have all the conversion therapy you want. Roll up at the Tavistock Clinic in London and you’re well on the way to a new life. Below the age of consent? Not a problem young man (sorry, lady) your conversion therapy can start immediately. Just take these pills and you’ll soon see those secondary male sex characteristics simply fade away and a nice pair of boobs will begin to grow. What about your pee-pee? Oh, we’ll have that off in no time.
Of course, I am being obtuse. What the trans lobby are referring to are any attempts to persuade people not to proceed with gender realignment. This is on the grounds, according to Stonewall, that: “Gender identity conversion practices are equally as damaging as sexual orientation conversion practices – with the associated physical harms, risks of damage, and high rates of mental ill health and suicidal ideation/attempts.” This seems strange given that gender realignment involves an assault on your endocrine system and, in some cases, the surgeon’s knife to your wiener with all the attendant risk that entails. Moreover, while there is a high level of suicide among people who have gender dysphoria – guess what, there is still a high level of suicide after gender realignment; it doesn’t work. And if someone seeks help with their gender dysphoria and asks to be ‘cured’, then Stonewall has that one covered. Apparently: “It is not possible to consent to conversion practices in a free and informed manner, and it should not be a defence that victims appeared to have consented.” It appears, according to Stonewall that people with gender dysphoria are also stupid.
Clearly, the transgender lobby will whinge and moan until they have their way. But it should be abundantly obvious even to them that gay conversion therapy and trans conversion therapy are not the same thing. Someone who is gay is gay and was most probably born that way, although that is hard to prove. They do not require hormone therapy or surgery, at considerable expense to society, to become what they desire to be. They already are what they want to be apart from a minority who may wish to find a way to be straight (now no longer available to them). Someone with gender dysphoria is not already what they want to be; they are what they are, but they want to make it more obvious by therapy and surgery. No not the same thing. If I see a surgeon then he or she will ensure that I want to proceed, tell me what the risks are and obtain my consent. I fear that, in the case of gender realignment, this may be classified as an attempt at conversion therapy. I can see it now: What? You want your dick removed surgically? Are you sure? And the poor medic will be up before the General Medical Council on a charge of trying to use conversion therapy. Meantime, back in Mariupol, Ukraine they have more pressing issues on their minds.
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
