Dear Editor:
Following leads in California, New Jersey and Washington, similar bills seeking bans on conversion therapies on minors are progressing in Illinois, Iowa and Oregon. More recently, NDP MP Cheri DiNovo is striving to advance the same prohibition in Ontario. And with good reason. Conversion therapies’ attempts to make gay people straight are fraught with massive side effects and virtually no success.
It lowers self-confidence, while increasing shame and guilt, self-destructive behaviour and suicidality. Scholarly research shows no scientific evidence supporting successful long-term conversion.
Before shutting down their 37-year Christian ministry in 2013, Alan Chambers, the then president of Exodus International (the world’s largest organization helping people overcome same-sex attractions) admitted that 99.9 per cent of gay people attempting to change their orientation fail to do so.
It is because of a complete lack of research coupled with evidence showing clear and significant side effects that leading medical and mental health organizations have expressly opposed the use of conversion therapies including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of Social Workers.
Closer to home, the Canadian Psychological Association finds, “Conversion therapies are predicated on the view that homosexuality is a problem or illness and in so doing perpetuates prejudice and devaluation.”
Similarly, the Canadian Paediatric Society’s position statement on adolescent sexual orientation concludes, conversion therapies “are clearly unethical and should not be provided by physicians, nor should physicians refer patients for such therapy.”
Their statement concludes, “Conversion and reparative therapies should not be provided because they do not work.”
So compelling is the research that psychologists describe conversion therapies as dangerous “pseudo-science.”
Surprisingly, here in B.C., conversion therapies on minors remain legal. Vulnerable youth need legal protections from unscrupulous, unethical, and misinformed “therapists” working outside the pale of ethical practice.
Our provincial government should follow the lead of other jurisdictions and enact law consistent with evidence-based best practices. Living in B.C. should not expose gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth to greater harm.
Nicholas Watkins
North Vancouver
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