More Action Against Conversion Therapy
As regular readers will know, I have a particular loathing for the unethical, unproven, and yes hateful practice of conversion therapy. This is where prayer is used in psychotherapy in order to “cure” people from their homosexuality. This practice has been protected by the freedom we place on the practise of religion, however, this practice has been shown to cause more harm than any good. Additionally, the consensus of psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and yes human beings is that homosexuality is not a pathology which needs to be “cured”.
In Derry, there is a motion before the Derry City and Strabane District Council which will ban the practice of Conversion or Reparative Therapy (as it is also known). This bill is following the Republic of Ireland’s proposed Prohibition of Conversion Therapies Bill 2018 which is making it’s way through the houses of the Oireachtas. It is hoped that this action by Derry City might be a template as to how to ban the practice of conversion therapy throughout the UK.
This is not without precedence, in 1973 there was a report into the practice of Scientology which concluded that the practice of psychotherapy, psychology and counselling should be regulated by the state. This proposed ban on reparative therapy would simply be validating the idea that citizens should be protected from quasi therapy and charlatanism. I hope that this gets passed on Thursday and that we can finally take action against this barbaric treatment.
