“My State Banned Conversion Therapy. It’s Been a Disaster”

The Conservatives think they are being clever by bringing in a ‘conversion therapy’ ban for LGB but not T, but it’s bound to backfire, says Moira Deeming, an independent member of the Victoria Legislative Council in Australia, writing in the Telegraph. Victoria banned ‘conversion therapy’ in 2021 and it’s been a disaster.

Everyone is familiar with the highly successful campaign the Left has run, telling people that not helping children who think they were born in the wrong body to undergo irreversible medical procedures is as bigoted as trying to persuade adolescents they’re not gay. 

You know the line: if you don’t accept this premise, you’ll be responsible for the misery of vulnerable young people. But that’s no excuse to be weak willed. We as adults, parents and lawmakers must take responsibility for protecting children. We must not be passive, nor self-serving. When it comes to protecting children, we must be ferocious. 

To criminalise – in any degree whatsoever – the instinct of loving parents and ethical clinicians to divert gender distressed young people away from irreversible interventions like puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgeries would be an unforgivable safeguarding failure.

Yet I have recently learned that the British Government is thinking about legislating on this issue. As I understand it, the Conservatives are tempted by the idea of being able to take credit before Labour comes to power for a politically savvy ‘conversion therapy ban’ that will appease all sides and reduce the likelihood of children being medically transitioned. 

As a politician in the Australian state of Victoria, allow me to enlighten you: it cannot be done. We passed a conversion therapy ban in 2021 – much to my dismay – that has made it a criminal offence for parents and clinicians to do anything other than affirm the self-diagnosis of gender confused children. Recommending a course of psychotherapy, or just asking them to pause and reflect, is an attempt to ‘convert’ them.

You can bet your bottom dollar that any attempt to protect these vulnerable young people – banning ‘conversion therapy’ for the LGBs, but not the Ts – will be swept away by the powerful LGBT lobby as the bill makes its way through Parliament. You will end up in the place we are in Victoria, where a parent cannot ask a child to reconsider a decision to have a double mastectomy without risking prosecution.

If the Conservative Government really wants to do something to protect vulnerable adolescents, it should do what I wish we’d done, and pass a law making it a criminal offence to help anyone under the 18 transition. 

Children do not have the capacity to consent to loss of fertility, sexual function, or long-term health. We shouldn’t allow these things to be done to any children, not gay children, not autistic children, and certainly not children who are confused about their gender. 

Worth reading in full.