Conversion Therapy: a Speech

Adults care about the safety and welfare of young people it is just one of those basic things that everybody knows. As a society we care about our youth we talk about keeping the children safe, it is not something that is up for debate. Keeping this in mind, I want to ask the adults a question, why is a practice described as "a form of psychological torture" still legal in 190 countries, of which New Zealand is one. Conversion therapy is something that we don't seem to talk or worry about, many people don't even know what it is despite the effect it is having on young people around the world and on our own doorstep. Conversion therapy is the practice of trying to change a persons sexuality and/or gender identity. It took off in 1965 when TIME magazine published an article called "Homosexuals Can Be Cured" that talked about a new "therapy" led by psychiatrist Samuel Hadden, who was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. The therapy claimed to "cure" people with "homosexual tendencies". But the concept of changing someone's sexuality has been around as longer than homophobia. Ever heard of "pray the gay away?" It was the first form of conversion therapy and stared in 12th century Europe when religious leaders like Saint Thomas Aquinas denounced homosexuality as a sin. Of course, because everybody followed the church back then homophobia and subsequently, conversion therapy, spread faster than the plage. Unfoertunly, unlike the plage, homophobia didn't go away after a couple of years. Instead, it has polluted our society for more than seven centres. Conversion therapy can still be legally practised in 190 countries including England, America, most of Australia and our very own New Zealand. Many of the people offering this "service" still use the same strategies that date back to the 12th century... They teach people to associate homosexual thoughts with physical pain, and/or humiliation. Studies show that LGBTQ+ youth that undergo any form of conversion therapy are 3 times more likely to use illegal drugs, 3 times for likely to contract STIs or HIV, 6 times more likely to report high levels of depression and more than 8 times more likely to attempt suicide. let those numbers sink in. It is proven that conversion therapy does. not. work. that all it does is cause long-term posological damage. Many of the people who have experienced conversion therapy say that it is a traumatizing experience and that even after they were no longer be "treated" they still suffered because of the self-loathing that was promoted.So why is conversion therapy still going on? In New Zeland, the LGBTQ+ community is widely accepted yet when the topic of conversion therapy is brought up it is not taken seriously, despite the research that proves it is hurting children. Recently there was a protection organised by rainbow youth to ban conversion therapy that had over 2000 signers on it but it was all but ignored by the government. So, adults, you hold the power there is only so much us, the youth can do. Do you simply not understand the statistics, or is it that you don't really care about all the children. Whatever the case, conversion therapy has gone on for too long it is time we start thinking about all the children and make changes to look after and protect them, because that is something everybody especially every child deserves.