To most New Zealanders the “gay conversion therapy ban” seems a no brainer: who wouldn’t want to prevent a group of fanatical pitchfork-wielding fundamentalists circling a defenseless gay teenage boy as they scream anti-homosexual taunts at him in order to convert him into a heterosexual? However, the ban isn’t all that it appears to be. At first glance it merely seems to ban conversion therapy to change “sexual orientation”, for example, from gay to straight; that’s the gay boy scenario above (although it is not very common in New Zealand). However, there’s a problem: the law also bans conversion therapy to change “gender identity”.
“But “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” are virtually the same thing, aren’t they?”, you might say. They certainly are not the same thing: in this case, one prevents people yelling abuse at gay and lesbian teenagers while the other, going by data from the United States, where identical laws have been operating for some time, results in young gays and lesbians trying to piece together the remnants of their broken bodies and minds after they had immaturely chosen to undergo gender reassignment procedures and then realised it wasn’t what they had needed or even wanted. A more honest name for this law might be the Children’s Gender Identity Transitioning Bill for its true purpose is not to rescue a few gay boys from the clutches of well-intentioned but misguided fanatics, but to allow any New Zealand child or teenager (or adult, for that matter) to bypass their parents’ and teachers’ authority, and order, without hindrance, drugs and surgical procedures from medical professionals for the purpose of changing their gender: FtM (Female to Male) or MtF (Male to Female).
This new law legally prevents medical practitioners from providing established therapies, for example, “talking therapy”, to help gender dysphoric patients - patients who believe there is a mismatch between their body and their gender identity. In addition to exploring all aspects of the patient’s dysphoria, these proven therapies also seek to identify any other psychological issues that might be causing the symptoms before moving on, if required, to riskier and mostly irreversible chemical and surgical transitioning procedures. The new law dictates that medical professionals now have only one therapy that they can legally utilise: “affirming”. “Affirming” means that doctors, psychologists and therapists are now required by law to automatically concur with the patient’s self-assessment. There is only a perfunctory checklist that the doctor must complete – an inconsequential hurdle for the child patient who has memorised all the “correct” answers from Youtube videos. Then if the child desires it, all discussion must cease and transitioning procedures as per the young patient’s instructions must commence: puberty blockers, hormones and genital surgery. An analogy would be a doctor automatically agreeing with a dangerously thin anorexic patient’s belief that they were overweight and then going on to prescribe weight loss pills because the patient demanded it.
In western countries, there is currently a social media-led fad among children and teenagers – especially adolescent girls - who believe they are “trapped in the wrong body” (Read Abigail Shrier’s 2019 book, Irreversible Damage - The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters). This deceptively inviting, fast-spreading social contagion of gender ideology, with its cult-like precepts and run by trans activists, encourages as many children and teenagers as possible to start transitioning as soon as possible. Tips are given on how to use bans on “gender identity” conversion against parents, teachers and doctors if they even question a child’s self-diagnosis or transitioning plan. Parents additionally find themselves being bullied both by schools, who are afraid of breaking the law, and social media, where powerful lobby groups ensure numerous positive articles about transitioning are to be found online while it is almost impossible to find critical views of “gender identity conversion therapy bans” – like this piece of writing. Meanwhile back at home, online-prepped children are able to emotionally blackmail their parents into accepting their transitioning even though many parents are suspicious of the fact that their children never exhibited gender dysphoria symptoms throughout their childhood. (Without transitioning most of these young people would likely grow up to be gay or lesbian.) In countries that have introduced a ban on conversion therapy to change “gender identity”, young people are transitioning at unimaginable rates with little, if any, professional counselling - no gate keepers, no oversight. In New Zealand, we seem determined to blindly follow these foolhardy trends while demonising those who issue caution.
In one US study, 70% of FTM (female to male) natal girls who transitioned in adolescence had changed their minds by the age of 24 at which point most of them wanted to thereafter be identified as “lesbian”. I imagine one of those young sisters in what should be the prime of her life trying to find an intimate partner while enduring and exhibiting the effects of “desisting” or “detransitioning”: her internal organs damaged by hormone use, another ten years of extreme mood swings after stopping the hormones, loss of genital and sexual function, reduced neurological development and suppressed IQ, almost certain infertility, life-long doubts about her identity after twice gender switching, feelings of shame over her insistent but wrong self-diagnosis and the consequent alienation from her parents, and a range of physiological issues, such as, masculinised facial features and voice, body hair, balding, diminished height and weight, a chest with scars and fake-looking non-functioning nipples, and possibly unrealistic-looking malfunctioning male genitals. The term ‘damaged goods’ is taken to a whole new level as her chances of finding a partner are much reduced. She may be thinking, “I was only a child. Why didn’t anyone stop me?” She may also be contemplating suing whoever was responsible: in this case, the government that didn’t ask questions. As a taxpayer, I should be a little concerned about this.
The New Zealand ban, like in the United States, also applies to children as young as five years old who will have learnt from peers, social media accounts and YouTube videos how to coerce their parents, lie to their teachers and demand transitioning drugs and procedures from doctors. Uncooperative adults, even those merely questioning, can be silenced by threatening legal action under the new “gay conversion therapy ban” by simply claiming that the adult was trying to “convert” the child from their “true gender” – the one they are transitioning to. According to the new law, no adult, including parents, is able to prevent children from transitioning - whenever they want to - all with the state’s blessings, approval and financing.
Ironically, this specious New Zealand law which purports to “ban conversion” actually “encourages and facilitates conversion” - the conversion of otherwise healthy cislesbian and cisgay children and adolescents into unhealthy, unwanted facsimiles of the opposite sex when all they had really needed was patience, understanding and acceptance as young individuals in a complex and confusing world. Let me be clear: this law abuses vulnerable children whose intelligence is still maturing and who have very little life experience. Of course, there will always be some genuine trans cases where the patient will live a happier life after transition, and these cases should not be denied the opportunity to transition – as was happening without this new regulation.
We do not need a law the likes of which has proven in other countries to be extremely hazardous in the long run to young lesbians and gays– a law that was duplicitously slipped in through the back door during a pandemic under the guise of insincere virtue signalling to the public and cynical pandering to extremist trans groups parading under the more respectable LGBT+ banner. As much as the gay and lesbian community might casually welcome a ban on conversion therapy to change “sexual orientation”, it should be remembered that bans on conversion therapy to change “gender identity” have proven abroad to be highly destructive. This part of the ban, or, if necessary, all of it, should be nullified immediately. Gays and lesbians did not ask for it. Without this deleterious new law, the gay teenage boy would have got over the incident with the fanatical fundamentalist pitchfork-wielders. Unfortunately, the 24 year old lesbian woman will probably never recover from her readily-facilitated misdiagnosis which has resulted in permanent mental instability and the hideous mutilation of her body. We do not need this on our conscience.