Carle Jasmin
In the week of December 6, 2021, the Canadian parliament voted to end conversion therapy and made it illegal. In doing so, he freed hundreds of people from the yoke of pseudo-therapists who offered this service. But what exactly is conversion therapy?
According to Wikipedia: “Conversion therapy, sometimes called sexual reorientation therapy or alternatively reparative therapy by its advocates, is a set of pseudoscientific treatments of various origins used for the controversial purpose of attempting to change the sexual orientation of a person. a person from homosexuality or bisexuality to heterosexuality. Such therapies are also often offered to transgender people. There is no reliable evidence that sexual orientation can be changed, and studies, medical organizations and international organizations report that these therapies are potentially dangerous. »
This is what happened to Marco (fictitious name to protect his anonymity), a 19-year-old from Montreal, who found himself forced by his parents to consult what he describes as « a kind of pseudo guru -therapist” for 3 months. A relatively short duration, but which had devastating effects on his mental state.
« I had the misfortune to tell my mother that I found a friend from CÉGEP very handsome, it was enough for my father to get angry and tell me it was the psychologist or the street, » says Marco, very moved to tell me his story.
“At first, the guru refused my request for a video teleconsultation on the pretext that he needed to assess my body language during therapy, and he received me at his home, in his fairly sparsely furnished living room, not even in an office. . He wanted to be paid cash before the session and there, he questioned me about my -urges- and my sexual desires. No matter how much I explained to him that I felt rather love, he always came back to sex, I even had the impression that he was interested in it in an unhealthy way, ”continues the young man who explained to me in an interview. that this funny situation showed him an aspect of his parents that he did not suspect and that changed his relationship with them.
“After 3 months, it became clear that he wanted to show me porn movies of heterosexual couples or a naked single woman, but I didn’t want to, and every time I resisted his treatment a little, he contacted my father who kept repeating that if I didn’t collaborate with the guy, he was going to drive me back to the Father’s House, like an itinerant. I couldn’t take it anymore, I cried every night in my room and I was so anxious about meetings that I didn’t eat 2 days before.
This is an eloquent example of pseudo-therapies that can demolish the mental health of young people. Marco now says he is openly gay and thanks the Government of Canada for coming to his rescue. And taking his courage in both hands, the day after the parliamentary vote, he told his father that if he spoke to him again about therapy, that he would file a complaint with the police against him. And he shut up!