My state banned conversion therapy. It’s been a disaster
Extreme transgender ideology is testing the political and moral conviction of legislators all over the world. 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.
Imagine how such a law would shift the debate. Instead of making self-serving non-statements like “we care about all people no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity”, the activists pushing for social transitioning, puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgeries for minors would be the ones having to defend their case.
National health authorities, private medical institutes and clinician insurance providers all over the world are beginning to reconsider support for these interventions. Let’s not make life easier for those pushing them, as the state of Victoria has done.
I hope this Government will not even consider putting forward any version – no matter how watered down – of a conversion therapy ban. Make no mistake, it will end up harming some of our most vulnerable children.
Moira Deeming is an independent member of the Victoria Legislative Council
