The end of Pride Month has brought some great news for Canadian children: On June 22, Canada?s House of Commons passed a bill that criminalizes the use of conversion therapy for minors.
Put simply, conversion therapy is a practice that seeks to change a person?s sexual orientation or gender identity and stems from an anti-2SLGBTQ+ premise. This practice not only implies that being 2SLGBTQ+ is something that can be changed, but that these lives are less valuable than those of heterosexual or cisgender people.
Kristopher Wells, Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual & Gender Minority Youth and a professor at MacEwen University in Edmonton, says that conversion therapy is not just one practice, but several different practices. In the past, this included electric shock therapy, chemical castration and lobodomies. Today, practices include aversion therapy, gender coaching, regressive gender roleplay, talk therapy, isolation and even exorcisms. ?It?s a whole range of different practices that vary in duration and intensity, but they?re all equally traumatic and devastating,” says Wells, who is also the co-editor of the Journal of LGBT Youth. The case against conversion therapy
These therapies are archaic and dehumanizing, and have been proven to be ineffective. ?There?s no legitimate scientific or medical evidence anywhere in the world that supports conversion therapy,? says Wells. Being subjected to conversion therapy also increases your likelihood...