I ended the last post with the question - what is the real reason behind not banning conversion 'therapy' outright in the UK? After looking closer at WHO's classification system for sexuality, I discovered it's psychological gibberish that's at fault, and one that continues to this day. Let me explain.
To go back to the 1970's in the USA, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) decided to remove homosexuality (ie gay, lesbian, bisexual) from their list of mental disorders in 1973. It was not until the 19th century that homosexuality was even thought of as a mental disorder and that was only because they were tweaking the Christian idea of sin. Nevertheless, it wasn't until the 20th century that homosexuality was actually added to any medical classification system, namely by the APA in 1968. So what took the World Health Organisation (WHO) so long to catch up? They took until 1990 to start putting it out there in their ICD-10 classification, and 1992 to publish it. However, it took countries that belong to WHO until 1994 to implement it. So you think all is well since 1994. You'd be wrong! Why? Because it included a sinister clause that is never mentioned but is exploited by governments and conversion therapy perpetrators. This sinister clause contains the lesser known mouthful of a concept: ego-dystonic sexual orientation (F66.1). This means, according to F66.1 sexual orientation is not in itself a disorder but if a person wishes to change this due to other associated disorders alongside it, then they can look for treatment to change their sexual orientation.
Is this the clause that is the root cause of not having a complete ban on conversion therapy in almost all countries around the world? Yes. Since 2014, there have been efforts within WHO to remove F66.1 because it's an exploitable and unethical loophole which also impacts on the health system of a country. It has now been removed by WHO so why aren't activists insisting their countries adopt this update?
What's Ego-dystonic Sexual Orientation?
Well, in psychology, anything that's a ego-dystonic behaviour is thought of as a diagnosable condition eg OCD falls into this category because those with OCD find the condition annoying and don't want to be like that because they see it as not being quite right.
Why?
Simplistically, ego-dystonic refers to disorders which are considered inconsistent with your sense of who you are and means you reject that aspect of yourself. So, for example, when applied to sexual orientation it refers to gay people who are not comfortable with being gay. Although this defeats me because it's not possible. If you're gay that's because you're meant to be gay. It's natural for you to be gay. To try to change that is unnatural. It shows you do not love yourself. And that's the real issue.
So the term ego-dystonic should not, and never should have been, misapplied to sexual orientation. Because OCD is an acquired secondary behaviour that has occurred as a result of an external cause and in that sense it is very different from being gay which is not an acquired behaviour but an identity with which you are born. This shows much of psychology is a social construct.
So, psychology has completely misunderstood sexual orientation/same-sex attraction twice over. First by misclassifying it as a mental disorder and second, by adding the subcategory of ego-dystonic disorder for those who, for whatever reason, are unable to embrace their sexuality at some point in their lives.
The importance of the latter, ie the subcategory of ego-dystonic disorder is the excuse given for continuing the barbaric practice of conversion 'therapy'. And it's this that holds back the outright ban on conversion 'therapy'. Why? Because those with this so-called condition want to change, by definition, so how nice of us to offer them (unnecessary) treatment. Well, actually, no it isn't nice at all.
What are the implications?
It's implying that being gay is a disorder otherwise there would be nothing to be dystonic about.
Ego-dystonic disorder and its opposite ego-syntonic are key concepts behind psychological treatment. Ego-syntonic disorders, such as, eating disorders, are difficult to treat because the person likes the way they are within the disorder because it fits with their perception of themselves so they don't wish to change. Thus, by classifying people who claim to be unhappy-to-be-gay as ego-dystonic the implication is that they want to change and won't resist doing so, unlike the ego-syntonic. This carries with it the distasteful connotation that it's healthy to undergo this change. Although this is very rarely the case in reality. Those who undergo conversion therapy often end up suicidal from the trauma of it. This is why WHO has now, this year, January 2022, removed ego-dystonic sexual orientation from its latest disease classification system ie ICD-11 replacing ICD-10. However, despite this positive move by WHO, countries can't be bothered to adopt ICD-11! Although a few countries have, nonetheless, banned conversion therapy outright, Canada, France and Malta being the best of the bunch.
The UK, however, has a sticking point when it comes to the trans community because WHO has merely downgraded gender dysphoria which trans experience, from mental disorder to gender inconsistency in its ICD-11. This leaves trans still seen as suffering a sexual health disorder and condition which is possibly why they've been excluded from the conversion 'therapy' ban.
Furthermore, the consent clause for conversion' therapy' could be eliminated if the UK adopted ICD-11 which they already should have done since it was passed before the consultation deadline early February 2022.
That's where the focus needs to be for gay activists! Get ICD-11 adopted and F66.1 removed by all countries!
There is, WHO concludes, no research evidence to show that sexual orientation needs any therapy or intervention by anyone! So if a gay person is displaying depression, anxiety, or distress then you address those emotions in them much the same way as you would a heterosexual person because those emotions are unrelated to their sexual orientation. They are more likely to be symptomatic of being on the receiving end of bullying, discrimination, and harassment because they are LGBT+. This, therefore, should not be misconstrued by psychologists (one in six were still interfering with gay sexuality through therapy in 2009! according to UCL/St George's research) and others as being unhappy being gay per se or suffering from a disorder.
I'll end on a wonderful quote from Elizabeth Moreno (French Minister of Equality):
'Being oneself is not a crime.... [or] a sickness that can be cured'
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