An International Declaration on “Conversion Therapy” and Therapeutic Choice

Feb 22, 2022 by

from IFTCC:

SIGNATORIES OF THIS INTERNATIONAL DECLARATION CALL UPON OUR GOVERNMENTS, LOCAL AUTHORITIES, HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDIA AND RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS, TO RECOGNISE THAT THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION IS AN ESTABLISHED PRINCIPLE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND THEREFORE MUST INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO SHAPE AND DEVELOP ONE’S OWN SEXUAL IDENTITY, FEELINGS AND ASSOCIATED BEHAVIOURS, AND TO RECEIVE SUPPORT TO DO SO.

The Declaration
1. Banning ‘conversion therapy’ infringes human rights and freedoms, imperilling both therapeutic choice and pastoral, professional and parental rights. Paragraphs 1-6.

Everyone has the right to reduce and change unfulfilling or undesired sexual feelings or behaviours, regardless of their motivations, goals or values. The right to align one’s feelings and behaviours to biological sex, in order to live according to the values and beliefs that bring them true happiness, is a human right. No one should take these freedoms and rights away from any individual. People should be free to make their own choices – politicians, activists, and mental health practitioners, should not dictate their actions…

2. Professional bodies promoting discriminatory monocultural viewpoints prevent ideological diversity and critique. Paragraphs 7-8.

We deplore the discrimination emerging in western mental health bodies by which dissenting views of sexuality and gender are disallowed on ideological rather than scientific grounds. This has led to monocultures of intolerance where research, leadership, funding, collegiality, supervision and guidance are provided from only one viewpoint. Those supporting change-allowing therapies are at risk of professional discrimination and marginalization…

[…]

6. The political aspirations to eradicate heteronormativity, sacrifice much needed therapy for children and adults who feel distress about their sex. Paragraph 26.

‘CT’ bans for minors will effectively prohibit children with dysphoria from being offered and receiving what the government of Finland, for example, has determined based on research, should be the first line treatment for gender dysphoria. This involves treating psychiatric conditions that may predispose adolescents to onset of ‘gender dysphoria’, that is, psychological interventions to help them to be comfortable with their biological sex, and not medically interfering with their bodies until they mature to age 25…

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