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[Kinvara]

Conversion Therapy is indefensible. It has been proven to be illegitimate and detrimental to a person's health. It is emotional and psychological abuse disguised as a treatment for a problem that doesn't exist.

Anyone who attempts to administer such a "therapy" is a fraud and should be charged as such.

Anyone that defends or supports this therapy is incredibly ignorant and/or cruel.

 

[Puppet Shadow]

Sorry. But if there were a way to change sexual orientation that didn't cause physical or psychological damage I would see no reason to restrict someone's personal freedom to make such a choice.

Although I can see where you're coming from, this comment would tick me off if I was gay. Why?

In all my years I've never heard a straight person lamenting that they weren't gay. So it implies that only gays are 'trapped' in their sexuality.


Edit: Damn, that's poorly worded, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

But people in this thread are telling me that it's impossible for someone who is gay to wish they weren't gay.

How is this what you got out of people telling you sex reassignment is different than succumbing to anti-gay rhetoric?

 

[rokkerkory]

Used to live in TX, now live in Cali.

Thank god I moved.

 

[CornBurrito]

Although I can see where you're coming from, this comment would tick me off if I was gay. Why?

In all my years I've never heard a straight person lamenting that they weren't gay. So it implies that only gays are 'trapped' in their sexuality.


Edit: Damn, that's poorly worded, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying.

I am gay though. I don't think I'd change that if given the option. But if there was a magic pill that could shift people between different sexualities I don't see why someone shouldn't have the freedom to take it as an adult. Some people would definitely be pressured into taking it by their friends and family, and that'd suck. But then again, if we ever do get such technology we'd probably have progressed socially.

 

[Kinvara]

I am gay though. I don't think I'd change that if given the option. But if there was a magic pill that could shift people between different sexualities I don't see why someone shouldn't have the freedom to take it as an adult. Some people would definitely be pressured into taking it by their friends and family, and that'd suck. But then again, if we ever do get such technology we'd probably have progressed socially.

Except this therapy isn't a "magic pill". It's abuse. It deeply harms those who partake in it and it doesn't work at all.

 

[Korey]

My point was, barring the damaging nature of ex-gay therapy, people should be able to choose what to do for themselves. But people in this thread are telling me that it's impossible for someone who is gay to wish they weren't gay. And to declare that one person can think to know how everyone else in a group thinks, is as strange to me as someone's stating that they know for a fact that there is no other life in the universe.

That's all I ever meant.

I am gay though. I don't think I'd change that if given the option. But if there was a magic pill that could shift people between different sexualities I don't see why someone shouldn't have the freedom to take it as an adult. Some people would definitely be pressured into taking it by their friends and family, and that'd suck. But then again, if we ever do get such technology we'd probably have progressed socially.

So would you advocate there be a way for people to change their race? I mean, I can see a lot of people wanting to do that for obvious societal reasons.

 

[Necromanti]

But people in this thread are telling me that it's impossible for someone who is gay to wish they weren't gay. And to declare that one person can think to know how everyone else in a group thinks, is as strange to me as someone's stating that they know for a fact that there is no other life in the universe.

I wished several times growing up that I was not gay. I hated how disgusting it was seen by everyone around me. The existence of gay people was rarely talked about, and if it was, it was nothing but negative or wrong. It felt impossibly lonely, and it makes you wonder what was wrong with you and why you had to be that way. I may not have wanted to be gay, but I never felt like I wanted to be straight.

Ex-gay conversion therapy is born out of the notion that being gay is disgusting, sinful, and harmful. People who choose to pursue that option are those who have been told all their lives that it is a despicable thing to be, and put the onus of the gay person to stop being who they are as if it were a choice. Most of the time, it is others (such as parents) who force their children to be "made right" as if it were a disease to treat.

I don't believe that anyone who want to change their sexual orientation if they did not feel rejected, hated, discriminated against, reviled, or told they were wrong for who they were. You are merely, perhaps unintentionally, serving as a devil's advocate for a destructive mindset that continues the propagation of the belief that being gay is ultimately wrong. Nobody is saying that anyone should be restricted from choosing their identities, but it is not something that we are afforded a choice for, and if there were that sliver of free will that existed in redefining ourselves so fundamentally, then I'd rather it be a decision made from a mind not wanting to change themselves to evade prejudice.

 

[jond76]

How is this what you got out of people telling you sex reassignment is different than succumbing to anti-gay rhetoric?

I made clear that I was speaking separate from the anti gay politics in the OP. And I don't defend the non working harmful "therapy" that's is associated with it.

Thankfully, CornBurrito can see past my communication troubles and see what I'm getting at.

 

[Puppet Shadow]

So would you advocate there be a way for people to change their race? I mean, I can see a lot of people wanting to do that for obvious societal reasons.

Huh, I wouldn't take a pill to be gay as I have no interest in that, but I wouldn't mind changing my race. Asian would be cool as I'd better fit in where I live, but I'd love to live out the rest of my years as an East Indian. I'd probably have to clear it with the wife first though.

 

[User 73706]

Let me try and put it this way for people: gender reassignment surgery is like wanting to have some fixes made to your car under the hood, getting them fixed, your car running more to your liking, and being able to drive in the fast lane as a result.

Sexuality reassignment surgery stems from old people thinking everyone should be driving twenty under the speed limit, and in an attempt to enforce this, they slash a car's tires, jerry-rig the e-brake permanently up, and force the car to drive into oncoming traffic.

 

[Kinvara]

We can speculate about all kinds of "magic pills" that don't exist and will probably never exist.

The reality is that the Texas Republican party is supporting abusive, illegitimate practices and ideas.

This is not about restricting personal freedoms.

 

[Kater]

Maybe those people could just accept me and other LGBT people as something normal.
Maybe...
In a utopian world.

Anyway, they are scum in my eyes for this.

 

[Christine]

Society gives trans kids all the tools they need to run "reparative" or "conversion" "therapy" on themselves, should they be sufficiently appropriately appalled by the prospect. I know this because I did it. Hell, I could forget for months or even years at a time.

I'd recommend this "therapy" to anyone who wants to endure unquenchable agony as the prisoner of their own mind; playing both roles--the rejected victim shunned and shamed by their abnegating tormentor shrieking disgust. One feeds into the other and the other into a goddamned vortex of pain and self-loathing.

 

[CornBurrito]

Except this therapy isn't a "magic pill". It's abuse. It deeply harms those who partake in it and it doesn't work at all.

I said that at least 3 times already. I thought it was pretty clear.

This is not about restricting personal freedoms.

Right. As I've also said 3 times already.

My "magic pill scenario" and defense of it was simply because someone told me I was "absurd" for thinking that if there was a non-harmful way of changing orientation, people should feel free to do so. I explicitly tied my arguments to a hypothetical scenario every time.

I am starting to believe that my posts aren't being read fully.

So would you advocate there be a way for people to change their race? I mean, I can see a lot of people wanting to do that for obvious societal reasons.

In the year 5xxx? Sure.

 

[elrechazado]

So would you advocate there be a way for people to change their race? I mean, I can see a lot of people wanting to do that for obvious societal reasons.

Sure, why not? If it were possible and If someone wants to change some characteristic of their body why should we care?