Conversion Therapy Must End
Happy Pride Month! 🏳️🌈
While families have been struggling with the ongoing effects of COVID-19, and our businesses are struggling to stay afloat, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Cloverdale - Langley City has been laser focused on defending conversion therapy.
Even worse, on April 16, while speaking in the House of Commons against Bill C-6 the Member quoted the apostle, Matthew, to conjure up the notion that members of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community are ‘unclean.’ Now, it seems she may have misappropriated staff time and taxpayer dollars to create a video about the benefits of professional counselling to “challenge gay sexual behaviour.”
This is extremely harmful
Do you know why? Because one’s sexual preference is not an ‘illness’ to be treated by therapy. Because this language perpetuates a system of prejudice, marginalization, and exclusion.
I stand by members of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community in Cloverdale - Langley City, and across the country, from coast-to-coast-to-coast. As your past Member of Parliament, I know how important it is to represent and stand up for all people. I know that our community values diversity, inclusion, and equity. It’s time for a driven, proven, and progressive leader to get us back on track.
What exactly is conversion therapy?
Conversion therapy, or reparative therapy, refers to any formal therapeutic attempt to change the sexual orientation of bisexual, gay and lesbian individuals to heterosexual.
25 years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada made a landmark ruling that sexual orientation should be read into the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to prevent discrimination based upon sexual preference. Yet 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals are still fighting for the acceptance, visibility, rights, and freedoms that many of us take for granted. By opposing Bill C-6 certain Conservatives want to stall progress and keep archaic, dangerous, and discriminatory practices in place.
As recently as last year, data from the Community-Based Research Centre Survey found that one-in-five men of a sexual minority have been subjected to sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression change efforts. The 2011-2012 results of the Survey also showed that lower income, Indigenous, and trans persons are disproportionately represented among those exposed to conversion therapy.
But, does conversion therapy work?
According to the Canadian Psychological Association, there is absolutely no scientific evidence to suggest conversion therapy works. In fact, it can result in negative outcomes such as distress, anxiety, depression, negative self-image, a feeling of personal failure, difficulty sustaining relationships, and sexual dysfunction.
What does Bill C-6 intend to do about it?
The intent of Bill C-6 is to protect 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, including youth. It proposes five new Criminal Code offences related to the practice of conversion therapy, and would make it illegal to cause a minor to either undergo the therapy, or to be removed from Canada to undergo it abroad.
Want to know more?
Learn more here!
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