To Whom it May Concern,
I am writing this statement to urge that a Conversion Therapy ban that includes “gender identity” not be passed in your country as it has been in mine. I am a Canadian Mother of a teenager who is surely to grow up to be a gay adult. She is confused by her aversion to “girl things”. She’s convinced that she “is a boy” because of an ideology, a social epidemic, that tells her that her want for short hair and “boy clothes” means that she was born in the wrong body.
My child cannot legally sit with a Canadian mental health professional and be told anything other than, “yes, you are a boy”. She will not be asked by said professional where she thinks these new thoughts and feelings might be coming from. She won’t be told by a professional, who should be well informed, that opposite sex ideation is incredibly common for young gay people and is a known symptom of her probable but undiagnosed Autism. My child and tens of thousands of other young people who claim to be born in the wrong bodies will not be given an opportunity to explore their thoughts and feelings with a Canadian mental health professional because as soon as a gender identity is mentioned this becomes “conversion therapy”.
Myself and many other Canadian parents fear taking our gender questioning children to a therapist or psychiatrist for ANY of their mental health concerns because we know that they will be unquestioningly affirmed and ushered down a medical pathway of synthetic hormones and amputating surgeries. This medical conversion based on the “right now” feelings of young people, is the OPPOSITE of what this type of legislation claims to do. Parents are avoiding mental health care in Canada altogether in order to stop the conversion of gay kids and kids with other known mental health conditions. This is a shameful state of healthcare in a supposed progressive country like mine.
Passing a Conversion Therapy ban that includes “gender identity” is not an act of protection, it is an act of medical and mental health neglect for children and young people who are naive enough to believe that all adult authority figures must be correct. It is misleading and has nothing to do with actual conversion therapy.
As a Mother of a gay teenager, I want nothing more than for my child to be free of the social stigma, the actual oppression and the abhorrent Conversion Therapy practices of the past— but this, is not that. A so-called Conversion Therapy ban that legally prohibits gay, Autistic, traumatized or otherwise confused minors from so much as TALKING with a professional about their underlying issues, and instead receiving immediate and unwavering affirmation only, is WRONG, is CRUEL, and WILL result in the medical and social conversion of many young homosexuals.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Canadian Mother
