Conversion Therapy Bans Conflate Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation with Counseling to Overcome Gender Dysphoria

Sex-transitioning that turns gender-confused gay kids into faux heterosexuals is the real 'conversion therapy'

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to state laws that ban “conversion therapy” for minors, in a case brought against a Colorado conversion therapy ban by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, representing a therapist who alleges her free speech rights are unconstitutionally violated by the law.

The Supreme Court is separately deciding this term whether states can ban sex-transition procedures for minors, and earlier this year President Trump signed an executive order to block federal funding for institutions that provide sex-transition drugs and surgeries for children.

According to The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ organization that supports sex-changes procedures for minors:

“Conversion therapy refers to a range of dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing one’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.”

The Washington Post’s report uses the subhead for its story:

“More than 20 states restrict conversion therapy, which health providers say dangerously attempts to change young people’s gender identity or sexual orientation.”

I'm in agreement about sexual orientation conversion therapy being destructive for gay kids, but not about equating gender identity with sexual orientation when addressing counseling therapies.

Here’s the rub:

Too many gender-nonconforming kids who would otherwise grow up to be gay or lesbian are being put on the trans train, with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, followed by surgery, when they would benefit from therapy to help them become comfortable as they are. But because LGBTQ+ treats immutable sexual orientation and gender confusion as both being inborn and permanent, counseling to help gender-confused gay kids is being banned and, instead, their conditions are being medicalized.

The real conversion therapy that should be banned, or at least heavily restricted, is altering the bodies of gender non-conforming young lesbian girls and gay boys, to turn them into faux heterosexuals.

A 9-year-old boy does not know the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity, only that he feels different from most other boys – and these are the kids now being pushed into so-called "gender-affirming care" – while states ban counseling to help them through gender dysphoria.

Many LGBTQ+ activists are up in arms over the prospect of unbanning conversion therapy, and consequently, so are many participants on various gay online groups I read. They see this case as another attempt to roll back what we now must call “LGBTQ+ rights.” If you know people like this, you might advise them to show some skepticism about what's being promoted by LGBTQ+ lobbies – and by big pharma, which profits by fostering a life-long dependency on cross-sex hormones, and by medical centers that benefit from insurance payments for multiple complex and costly surgeries .

Those who believe that the path to transitioning must be paved for children with gender dysphoria might want to check out the postings on Facebook and Substack by the LGB Alliance USA and the LGB Courage Coalition – groups that remind me of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and what was once the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) back in the ‘90s, when fighting for lesbian and gay rights (and protecting gay kids) was the mission. Today, LGBTQ+ groups have a very different mission, unfortunately.

(I’ve posted at the end of this article excerpts from the mission statements of LGB Alliance USA and LGB Courage Coalition regarding the medicalized transitioning of children.)

I repeat: A 9-year-old boy does not know the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity, only that he feels different from most other boys – and these are the kids now being pushed to take puberty blockers followed by a life-time dependence on cross-sex hormones and genital surgeries. These kids, almost all of whom would outgrow their gender dysphoria and accept themselves as gay if not encouraged to transition, are often left (due to early medicalization) not only sterile but unable to experience orgasm.

Counseling to help them through gender dysphoria is being banned as "conversion therapy" because we are led to falsely equate trying to make a gay child into a heterosexual with helping gay kids through the kinds of gender confusion that most gay kids experience to some degree or another (i.e., if you’re not into sports like the other boys, or swoon over teen-boy heart-throbs like the other girls). Young gender nonconformists are now, however, encouraged by social media, and often even their teachers, to consider that that they were born in the “wrong body.”

Many gay people only hear from “official” LGBTQ+ groups and media, and don’t realize that there are gays and lesbians who dissent from those views. LGB Alliance USA and the LGB Courage Coalition, for example, have posted reports both by whistleblowers (often lesbian or gay) at pediatric gender clinics who were appalled by the lax standards used prior to administering puberty blockers, and from gays and lesbians who later de-transition and relate how little counseling they received as minors – such as maybe one or two sessions – before being put on puberty blockers, followed by cross-sex hormones and surgeries. Parents are too often cowed by therapist who assure them their children will commit suicide unless a course of life-long medicalization is begun prior to puberty.

The problem with trying to weigh free-speech arguments against the state’s role in protecting minors is that sexual orientation conversion therapy does have drastically negative consequences for gay kids. But, ironically, counseling for gender dysphoria can save gay kids from unnecessary physical mutilation and sexual dysfunction.

We’ll see if the Supreme Court can figure out that LGB and T are not the same, as much as LGBTQ+ activists groups try to obscure that distinction.

Addendum:

From the mission statement of LGB Alliance USA:

We oppose the harmful, unnecessary, and unscientific medicalization of children in the name of “gender transition.” We oppose ideologies promoting the belief that gender-nonconformity or dysphoria requires physical alteration through medical intervention. With research indicating 60-90% of gender-nonconforming children who identify as trans eventually desist and become LGB adults, we believe all children should be free from the constraints of gender roles without medicalized “transition” or the need for a new “identity.” We understand gender dysphoria as a psychological reaction to a sexist society, and view “transition” as a new form of conversion therapy designed to “fix” gender-nonconforming and LGB youth. We instead support ethical forms of counseling intended to help dysphoric youth become more comfortable in their bodies.

And from the mission statement of LGB Courage Coalition:

The LGB Courage Coalition is a lesbian and gay advocacy group committed to promoting evidenced-based medical care for all, ending the medicalization of sex nonconformity, safeguarding homosexual rights, and building a pathway back for LGB individuals who have undergone medicalization.

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