Conversion therapy; back to basics
"Sometimes you are erased before you have the chance of stating who you are". Ocean Vuong
In the second quarter of the 21st century the demographic mostly targeted for this form of torture known as conversion therapy is trans and non-binary children.
In the coming weeks and months as it is discussed, the waters will be expertly muddied with 'gender-critical' transphobes working through the media and deploying terms like 'persuasion' and 'exploring', but we need to be crystal clear, Conversion "therapy" (CT) is torture. End of. It is torture in such a way that we cannot describe those subjected to it as anything other than victims. They are not "patients" they are victims. And it is not "therapy", it is torture. The people doing CT are torturers, that needs to be the baseline in all this. It doesn't matter who is doing this torturing, or where, or on whom, CT is always torture.
Victor Madrigal-Berlioz, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Based on LGBTQIA+ Identity identified a number of characteristics of CT, including the following;
"religious rituals, forced social exclusion, forced homelessness, threats of violence and death, actual physical violence, imprisonment/confinement/shackling, abuse, abuse by people in authority, e.g psychiatrists, teachers, religious leaders, force-feeding/food deprivation, humiliation, coercive medical examinations/nudity, community coercion, forced same-sex ‘bonding’, rape, socioeconomic deprivation, misuse of medicine, misuse of psychology-based practices, e.g. psychotherapy, coercive pathologisation, forced masturbation, ‘re-education’, isolation, electric shock treatment, exorcisms, forced medicating and forced powerlessness."
When a CT torturer is 'exploring' a child's gender identity in a highly euphemised 'therapy' session, they are deploying one or more of these torture strategies. The outcomes of this form of torture are described in this (non-exhaustive) list from the American Psychological Association;
"long-lasting social and emotional consequences including depression, anxiety, suicidality, substance misuse, a range of posttraumatic responses, loss of connection to community, damaged familial relationships, self-blame, guilt, and shame."
This is the output of CT. This is what it does.
It does nothing else. Literally nothing else.
It doesn't make cis gay/lesbian/bi people straight and it doesn't make trans and non-binary people cis. Even on its own terms it fails to do what it claims to do. There is no credible evidence that it has ever succeeded in what it claims to do. Not only that but there is no authoritative theoretical justification or basis for it in psychology or anywhere else. It just produces depressed, anxious, suicidal, traumatised victims who struggle to connect socially with others.
In essence CT robs its victims of the ability to lead a productive and happy life. This is not dissimilar from victims of other kinds of torture.
So why is it still deployed against trans children (and others)?
The answer to this question also contains the reason why it should not be used on anyone. The torturers who impose CT come from an ideological subsection of the population that believes that being LGBTQIA+ is wrong and that those who are, need to be "corrected" for the good of society. The basis of all CT, especially that deployed today, that being trans is a 'problem'. As always the problem is not trans people per se however, the problem is in the heads of transphobes. They are unable to accept trans people and consequently must intervene using violence if necessary, and CT is a form of violence; 'gender-critical' transphobia has always been a violent practice. No matter if the intervention they want will never make trans children cis. They would rather punish trans kids for existing, by giving them lifelong psychological problems, than allow them to live in peace. CT has existed for decades and has only ever produced the outcomes described by the American Psychological Association above, so we must by now conclude that, in reality, this is its purpose.
This also tells you why CT should be banned completely, with no loopholes whatsoever. Therapy usually means the therapist responding to the needs of the individual. Therapy, and indeed any kind of medical intervention is about centring the individual patient. I needed to go to the hospital recently because I had hurt my right foot. The doctor at A&E didn't decide I needed treatment for my left foot instead, or my right arm, or my nose, or my elbow... CT in contrast, is always entirely about the agenda of the therapist/torturer. So when a child turns up at one of these NHS clinics and says he is a boy, the clinic's priority is to turn him into a girl, or at least make him think he is a girl. That is why it is a form of torture not a bona fide therapy or healthcare treatment; CT is for the torturer not the victim.
How do we know CT is being deployed by the NHS? Because Hilary Cass said so in an interview with the BBC;
"It may be that if they were prescribed puberty blockers instead, that would give more time for the therapist to work with them and perhaps come to a different solution than a long-term life on medication."
"Work with" is a phrase doing a lot of work here, and not necessarily an honest day7's work for an honest day's pay. It seems likely that the NHS sees conversion therapy as something to be deployed to cover the entire period a child is receiving puberty-blockers. In other words, years of torture.
As Abigail Thorn has argued, the UK has really only ever had CT for trans children. The underlying ideology of those in power in the UK is that being trans is always a negative outcome and that they are prepared to torture children to prevent this from happening. In no other area of healthcare is this kind of ideological exclusion allowed to dominate. Ultimately it is a paternalistic fascist/eugenicist ideology; we know what's better for you than you do.
What we must be particularly careful of is the way the Cass Review, the draft bill and the Labour governments' extreme transphobia is attempting, through this "non-ban" to legitimise CT in some circumstances and on some people. It must never be allowed to. It's primary intention is not to ban conversion therapy, but to legitimise the state-mandated conversion therapy already being meted out to trans children unlucky enough to be trapped by the NHS gender services.
One of the most interesting things to have come out of the media circus surrounding this non-ban is that the government seems to be quietly admitting that the NHS gender services are conversion therapy centres and that is their prime function. Most trans people have realised this from the outset, but most normies still somehow trust the government, few will read beyond the headlines, and even then the media will withhold the important details. By low-key admitting that NHS policy on trans children is primarily based on the psychological torture of children that is CT but doing so in the context of a CT "ban", Labour is intending to manufacture consent for the psychological torture of children in certain circumstances by implying that it is OK/legit if it is done by professionals. Never mind that those "professionals" are hardcore transphobes with eliminationist beliefs. In response we need to get back to the basics on CT.
What we need to get back to basics here and remember that what we are fighting is state-mandated torture of children, here in the UK. Our response to this outrage perpetrated by this most transphobic of governments cannot be allowed to degenerate lower than anything but sheer anger, and we must never compromise. The LGBTQIA+ communities must not accept a CT ban that has any loopholes. We must stand solidly and unflinchingly against it, for as long as it takes. We need to face up to the reality that the government is not going to implement a genuine CT ban because it is operating a policy of CT as its primary "treatment" of trans children. We will not be able to negotiate this away, the government has invested millions in legitimating this new system and we need to understand that this non-ban is a core part of that. You only have to look at all the other anti-trans policies Labour is putting in place such as the toilet ban, putting trans prisoners in danger of being raped, erasing trans people though data dishonesty, and Bridget Phillipson's new turbocharged Section 28 for schools to understand that underpinning all this is its tacit core policy of trans eliminationism. As such the non-ban and reliance on CT in the NHS fits into everything else neatly.
More effective than trying to negotiate changes to something that the government will never change, we should be campaigning against the NHS psychological torture centres for trans children, this is what it is all about. But above all else we must stay angry. If you are not angry about the British state torturing children because they are trans then quite frankly there is something wrong with you. This is not something we can ever compromise on, there can be no compromise with people who torture children, we have to oppose it and keep opposing. For the sake of the children.
