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Last month Canada banned the controversial conversion therapy, a discredited practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The law took effect yesterday. The Bill passed in the Canadian parliament on December 8, stated that "providing, promoting, or advertising conversion therapy" is a criminal offense as is profiting off of the provision of the therapy. The violations can lead to sentences up to five years’ imprisonment.
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had tweeted after the bill got passed: "It's official: Our government's legislation banning the despicable and degrading practice of conversion therapy has received Royal Assent - meaning it is now law. LGBTQ2 Canadians, we'll always stand up for you and your rights."
The government in Canada uses the acronym LGBTQ2 to include Two-Spirit, a term some Indigenous people use to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity. According to recent findings of a study by Community-Based Research Centre approximately one in 10 gay, bi, trans and queer men and Two-spirit and non-binary people in the country have undergone the therapy. (https://bit.ly/3q43vJ0).
Techniques used in so-called conversion therapy that includes talk, behavioural, visualization, psychoanalytic and even spiritual interventions such as “prayer and group support and pressure.” In the past, chemical castration, hormonal treatments and application of electric shock to the hand and genitals were used. The therapy is now debunked in many countries – including 20 states and Washington D.C in the US—and also discredited by the United Nations, World Health Organisation and Amnesty International.
The text of the bill says it harms society because "it is based on and propagates myths and stereotypes about sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, including the myth that heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity, and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions."
READ MORE: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/09/1062720266/canada-bans-conversion-therapy
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/canada-bans-conversion-therapy-joining-handful-nations-rcna8253
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/12/09/canada-bans-conversion-therapy/6446262001/