Bill to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth

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Two people from Hamilton were sharing their experiences and stories at Queen’s Park today, as an NDP MPP tabled a private members bill that would ban “conversion” therapy for LGBTQ youth. It’s called the “affirming sexual orientation and gender identity act”, and if it’s passed it would ban any health care professional from directing the sexual orientation or gender identity of a patient under the age of 18. NDP MPP Cheri Dinovo is behind the bill and she believes she can get enough support to pass it.
“This is more a legal issue, than it is a medical one, per se. So really the law has to change here. I’ve had a great deal of support from around the floor” Ms. Dinovo refers to Toby’s Law, which is a law that expanded the human rights code to include protection of gender identity and gender expression “why doesn’t that law cover the treatment of children.”

Ms. Dinovo says being lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two spirited or queer “is who one is”, and to tell a child who they are is wrong. 26 year old Erika Muse says she came out as trans at 16 years old and she says a psychiatrist tried to push her to live life as a man.
“Even though I asked him for the medication I had come seeking for and was told only he could provide, I was denied it. But i was told I had to return again for more and more therapy. Each appointment I would come back and see him, he would comment on newly masculinized parts of my body that I now hated. These were parts of my body he could have stopped from developing if he had given me the treatment i had asked for. Then he would ask me how I could or pass as a woman with these parts of my body that were developing. He would berate me for not meeting his unknown expectations about what he wanted from me, questioning my life and asking what i could have done to be a better man. Sessions were not therapeutic, but abusive. They led to trauma about my body and a lack of faith in myself. I often left feeling violated and hurt.”

Jake Pyne is from McMaster University’s School of Social Work/Gender Studies “I would say practitioners who try to change someone’s sexual orientation have no place in the scientific community right now. They’re outliers, they’re not considered to be appropriate practitioners. That’s not the case right now for practitioners who try to correct gender identity. Where they have a place…its still considered to be valid practice in some circles.”

The proposed bill would prevent any attempt to change or direct a person’s gender identity under the age of 18, and would ban such services from being covered by OHIP. the legislation is the first in Ontario and the first in many jurisdictions.