Mick Hartley

From the Times:

More than two thirds of Church of England priests back the government’s plan to introduce a ban on conversion or so-called “gay-cure” therapy, with less than a fifth against it, a Times survey has found.

A Times survey was sent out to 5,000 priests selected at random from a Church of England directory and almost 1,200 responded.

It included the question: “The government is proposing a ban on conversion therapy. Do you support or oppose such a ban?”

A total of 67.8 per cent said they supported a ban, with 17.7 per cent against….

The term conversion therapy broadly refers to any kind of pressure applied to those who are gay or transgender to repress their sexuality or gender identity. At its most extreme, there have been reports of electro-therapy and so-called “corrective rape” being used.

That's all very interesting, but it skips over the thorny issue of what exactly "conversion therapy" means nowadays. Everyone agrees that the old-style gay conversion therapy – electro-therapy and so-called “corrective rape”, etc. – is an abomination, but the controversy now centres on the fact that gender activists have co-opted the term to refer to any intervention, such as counselling, or just wait-and-see, which doesn't immediately affirm a child's belief that they were somehow "born in the wrong body" and should adopt a new gender identity. For these activists, encouraging a child to stop and think, and carry on through a normal puberty so they don't make a terrible mistake and ruin their lives, is seen as conversion therapy.

The whole issue's been turned on its head: the real gay conversion therapy is the endorsement of a new gender identity leading to puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and ultimately surgical procedures – so a child who would have developed into a normal gay adult is re-engineered into some pseudo-version of the other sex. 

As none of this is acknowledged, the survey is a complete waste of time.