Banning Conversion Therapy

 

Ex-gay Milo Yiannopoulis

Friend Xerxes has written a column opposing “conversion therapy,” which seeks to shift preferences among those with homosexual attractions in the heterosexual direction. Justin Trudeau has said that, if elected, a ban is an “absolute priority.” The Conservatives and NDP have also promised a ban.

Xerxes’s first argument against conversion therapy is that nobody ever convinced anyone of anything.

Our parliamentary system would not work if this were true.

People on the right, at least, enjoy exchanging accounts of their “red-pill” moments. The religious similarly exchange their conversion stories, most often due to a particular sermon, or a talk with a Christian friend.

Some people, it is true, cannot be persuaded by evidence or argument. These people are the insane. There are a lot of them, the number is growing, and it is not always obvious that they are insane. We tend to see it only when their core beliefs are challenged. They may then become violent or abusive, or they may just ignore what was said and repeat their point. Or they may begin speaking obvious nonsense.

Alcoholics, for example, are insane. It is never rationally coherent to be an alcoholic. 

Are homosexuals insane? That’s a harsh claim. If so, even so, we do not simply give up on other mental illnesses. We do try to offer therapy.

Xerxes’s second argument is that conversion therapy is coercive. 

“You set up a situation where the victim desperately wants a break from the constant barrage of pressure to change. Sleep deprivation. Tag-team arguments. Aversion training. Noise. Pain. Never left alone.”

No existing conversion therapy does any of this, because itr is already illegal. It would be the crime of coercion, or duress. Conversion therapy is necessarily far more like going to a diet centre, or a psychotherapy session, or an AA meeting. Should they be banned?

Another argument that might be made is that conversion therapy does not work: people are born homosexual, we are told, so how could it? Yet I know personally of former homosexuals who have switched; perhaps you do too. There are public examples. And there are many public examples of people who switch from a heterosexual lifestyle, suddenly divorcing and running off with a gay lover. How can we assume it only works one way?

There may be no solid scientific proof that conversion therapy works. There is no solid scientific proof that psychiatry works either, or psychiatric medicines, or AA.

The final argument that might be made is that nobody could possibly have a reason not to want to be gay. But this is obviously false as well. Leave aside for now all possible moral objections to homosexuality. Being homosexual makes it much more difficult, at best, to have a family, to have children and to pass on your genes. It severely limits your choice of partners, and sets you up for a lifetime of mostly unrequited love.

It is unjust and cruel discrimination against homosexuals to ban such therapies. If some homosexuals do not themselves understand this, and actually want such therapies to be made illegal, they are indeed insane.