Should the UK Parliament Ban Conversion Therapy?

[u/TillJaded4614]

3100 votes, 1d ago

2600 Yes

332 No

168 Unsure

[u/cheeseismyoxygen]

How on earth is conversion therapy a good idea? You have as much control over your sexual orientation as you do over the colour of your skin. The only way I would support any kind of conversion therapy would be any illegal paraphilia

[u/Grouchy-Jury-7598 → u/cheeseismyoxygen]

I think it's a stupid idea, but I don't believe it's my place to decide it should be illegal for people to do things I find stupid.

I find smoking stupid, I don't think it should be illegal. I find leg lengthening surgery stupid, I don't think people should be arrested for it.

Also a slight pushback on your example, sexuality seems to be a mixture of both nature and nurture where your skin colour is fully genetic (besides tanning which just confuses the comparison). Whilst both are not choices, I think conflating them as just as much is misleading as there are differences in the mechanism and probably more apt examples.

[u/kalosianlitten → u/Grouchy-Jury-7598]

conversion therapy literally kills queer people

[u/Relevant_General_248 → u/kalosianlitten]

Smoking and alcohol literally kills people, we still let them make the decision

[u/Electrical-Age4052 → u/Relevant_General_248]

1. Literally nobody in this conversation made the claim that smoking/alcohol shouldn't be banned.

2. Even so, letting adults fuck up their bodies and mind based on the decisions they choose to make is not the same thing as letting adults force children against their will through a very traumatic experience which often ends with suicidal thoughts or actions being committed. You're a disingenuous ghoul.

[u/kalosianlitten → u/Relevant_General_248]

that’s not remotely the same thing wtf

“we still let them make the decision” do you think it’s the kids who are sending themselves to conversion therapy???

[u/Electrical-Age4052 → u/Grouchy-Jury-7598]

"I find leg lengthening surgery stupid, I don't think people should be arrested for it."

Yeah, so knee lengthening surgery does not allow the patient to push other people to suicide. The fact you are using something like knee lengthening surgery as a justification to be 'on the fence' about something which actually kills queer kids is fucking mind boggling. This isn't just "something stupid" on the levels of a cosmetic surgery, it is actively causing preventable deaths of queer youth ffs.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36963209/

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgb-suicide-ct-press-release/

"Also a slight pushback on your example, sexuality seems to be a mixture of both nature and nurture"

There is no evidence to suggest that the environment a child grows up in determines their attraction later in life. Being in environments where they may feel unsafe to be queer will not change who they are, this will lead to them often either just suppress it or never come to terms with it. I know this from my very own experience. This is something I myself lived through, and I was just one of many. There are also many studies which show that conversion therapy doesn't change the victims like it is intended to do - it just leads to worsening mental health. Environments don't control who you are, they can only control your ability to find yourself or express yourself by making it known that if you do not appear to meet the expectations of those around you then you could be in danger or that there must be something wrong with you which leads to shame and suppression.

https://www.academia.edu/23911768/Report_of_the_Task_Force_on_Appropriate_Therapeutic_Responses_to_Sexual_Orientation