Mick Hartley

It seems that the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) has been captured by gender theory. Here's a piece by counsellor Peter Jenkins – BACP and Terfism: Reaching the Point of no Return for Ethical Therapy?

Words matter. For therapists, words matter a lot. To find the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) promoting a trans activist perspective on current gender issues therefore comes as a shock. The BACP is hosting an event badged as ‘Queering the therapy space’, which may have a lot more in common with promoting Queer Theory than with developing therapeutic work with people identifying as transgender. One of the sessions goes further, however, and is being advertised by BACP with this description:

“Britain is currently facing a queer healthcare crisis comparable only to that of the AIDS epidemic. The urgent state of trans healthcare requires a specific political response from cic (sic) people, and has required a commitment to a mutual aid organising model from the community itself. Understanding the specific role Terfism plays at the heart of British media, the rise of popularity in conversion therapy and the tactics of the far right create a uniquely hostile environment for trans people to access healthcare across the developed world” (BACP, 2022).

As Jenkins argues, and as everybody by now surely knows, TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist) is a term of abuse hurled at feminists who push back against the trans agenda and campaign to protect women's safe spaces. It's misogynist, offensive, and comes regularly with a side order of nastiness like "terfs can suck my trans dick", and worse. To see "Terfism" presented as some kind of legitimate term in a debate is shocking enough.

Then there's this "queer healthcare crisis comparable only to that of the AIDS epidemic" claim, which is complete nonsense as well as offensive to AIDS victims. As ever in matters trans, the hyberbole dial is turned up to 11. No community has ever suffered as the trans community now suffers!

Conversion therapy here is clearly referring to the idea that young people convinced that they suffer from gender dysphoria might be well advised to have some therapy and some time to think before rushing down the irreversible path of puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and surgical intervention. There's some irony in the BACP, the association for therapists and counsellors, opposing the idea of therapy and counselling in favour of drastic medical procedures.

And of course anyone arguing against this can only belong to the far right.

There's now a petition from a group calling themselves Thoughtful Therapists, urging the BACP to reconsider.