LGBT News UK government to ban 'gay conversion therapy'

This is great! It should be banned at the very least for children entirely, no exemption for religious or other non-licensed counselors. I guess adults should be able to seek it out, but none should be medically licensed or have any legitimate professional accreditation. I mean you can't stop an adult from discussing those ideas with a pastor or anyone. Ideally they would somehow read or hear the stance of real medical professionals so at least they'd get the truth. Even if they ignore it at the time, it might still linger in their mind for later use. Some adults have maybe never heard the truth if they've only been exposed to their uninformed tribe. One problem is these facilities and people work in secret and move from place to place. Often the ones for kids are physically abusive too and it's just so heart breaking. Unfortunately this underground stuff will keep going on I'm afraid.

 

Long overdue but better late than never.

 

I think there's a pretty strong consumer protection and medical ethics argument to suggest commercial gay conversion 'therapy' should be banned, especially where it purports to be scientifically valid, as the provision of a non-functioning service to a vulnerable class of persons. Add on top of that the civil rights concerns and you've got a pretty solid argument for regulating them out of existence.

You certainly can't stop religious leaders in their religious capacity from arguing that homosexuality is not immutable (in some states, such as the UK, you technically can but it would be unwise to do so). What you can do, however, is quite easily stop them from providing a for-profit service which claims to change sexuality. And that weakens the coercive power of the cleric who would deceptively lead a vulnerable, religious LGBT person into faux-therapy.

 

Better late than never

 

As someone who in his 20's thought he could change who he was I subjected myself to a Christian counselor. Words and ideas can be as harmful as physical abuse.

I consider myself Christian, just not the kind who judges others because I believe only God can judge.

Dean

 

I agree and tried to indicate none should be professionally accredited. I just realize that adults will seek what they want whether legal or not and religious/nonprofit groups will continue to attempt conversion and already do so underground. I'm totally against it and I want LGBT people to get the facts about it so hopefully they won't attempt it. Sadly even if it's eradicated in the UK it grows in other countries that have gotten worse about LGBT rights

 

This is good, but please get rid of that twat sadiq khan. He doesn't belong in the government neither does May.

 

I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say, same as another member so I'll paste that reply in hopes it helps. If you still disagree, how do you realistically prevent adults from accessing information and talking with people about it? I wish the only information about it was how damaging it is, but just don't see how that's realistic.

Previous reply: I agree and tried to indicate none should be professionally accredited. I just realize that adults will seek what they want whether legal or not and religious/nonprofit groups will continue to attempt conversion and already do so underground. I'm totally against it and I want LGBT people to get the facts about it so hopefully they won't attempt it. Sadly even if it's eradicated in the UK it grows in other countries that have gotten worse about LGBT rights

 

It's sad that a government needs to "plan to outlaw" something that's basically torture. Just ban it, already!

 

I agree with you. I wasted a lot of my 20s trying to change after joining a conversion therapy group. I am still recovering from the harmful effects many of which might last a lifetime.

 

Many interesting points in this thread, but I think the most important thing to state is that conversion therapy (reparative therapy) does not work. No ifs, no buts, no maybes Many of the techniques employed amount to little more than quackery and it really offends me that we call it therapy. By no measure is it therapy. At best it's just a silly waste of time and effort, at worst it's harmful and dangerous.

 

Awesome. We need this in the US.

 

That's very true. In my case however I voluntarily chose to do the therapy when I was 21 because I wanted a traditional life; to marry a woman and have kids. Societal expectations can cause a lot of pressure and the possibility of being openly gay wasn't an option.

If I had known that it had a 100% failure rate I would not have wasted 5 years of my life on it. I can't gain back the time lost but it was a huge learning experience.