Margaret Court, please listen carefully
As the old saying goes, “the personal is the political”.
Both personally and as an active community member, I have huge concerns about Margaret Court’s remarks about practising conversion “therapy”. I have been on the receiving end of it and don’t want anyone else to experience this — let’s call a spade a spade — brainwashing and torture.
In 1995, then aged 29, I finally told a friend about “wanting to look like a woman”. Factual information about trans was scarce back then so I decided to see if a psychiatrist knew anything about it.
Unfortunately, this person used the psychological form of conversion therapy on me. I was bombarded with comments like “So you first remember this when you were six. What happened in your life then? What happened then?”
Of course nothing had happened, but the intense interrogation pressured my mind into trying to find something that obviously wasn’t there. And the more it looked for that non-existent “cause”, the worse I became.
My … mental … functioning … became … slower … and … slower. (I write it that way because that’s how I was speaking at the time.) I believe no one deserves to be pushed away from their soul/true self and damaged to this extent.
Another friend of mine has spoken about receiving electric shock treatment to “cure” her. I believe as a human race we condemn these sorts of behaviours as torture when they happen in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay. It is impossible to justify them any time — and certainly not as “health” treatments.
I can understand those who have been on the receiving end of these approaches may be reluctant to speak out due to reliving any distress. I can only urge people to find the strength to speak out — it may spare one person somewhere this distress.
Saying such approaches don’t work is a good start. I wonder if Joe and Mary public really understand how dangerous these approaches are?
Finally, I pose some questions openly to Margaret Court if somehow, Margaret, you choose to read this. I was 29 at the time of my experiences and these brainwashing and interrogative tactics caused me massive damage. I hope, Margaret, that there is no suggestion these tactics of interrogation, brainwashing and physical torture are ever to be used on anyone under 18.
I also ask how, given that three of the largest bodies of experienced and qualified health professionals in Australia (see below) reject these approaches, you claim to know better than they do.
Now, at 46, I’m alive, happy, healthy and achieving my human potential as a bisexual and transgender woman. I want all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to be the same. And a good starting point for that goal is to ensure conversion “therapy” is made totally extinct.
P.S. See you with pride at Melbourne Pride March this Sunday!
INFO: Sally Goldner is VGLRL treasurer, Bisexual Alliance treasurer and TransGender Victoria spokesperson.
http://www.ranzcp.org/images/stories/ranzcp-attachments/Resources/College_Statements/Position_Statements/ps60.pdf
http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/reparative_therapy.pdf
http://ama.com.au/node/552
I am profoundly disturbed by pentecostal and other churches who associate themselves with so-called conversion therapy. From my experience as a Psychologist in Private Practice, University lecturer on sexual issues in my local medical faculty and author of a work on gay sexuality and Christian faith, I think it is high time that churches be made accountable before the law for the damage they cause people in these unnecessary, harmful, unethical and deceptive ‘treatments’. These practices run completely against the wisdom of the science and anthropology as we understand them now and the experiences of former ex-gay participants show that no-one is changed. Instead, individuals are invited to live in a shadow world of being in between – not gay, not straight and either a perpetual life of celibacy, loneliness and isolation or a closeted life-lie if indeed they do end up marrying an opposite-sex person. In 2012, we know now that you cannot ‘turn’ a gay person straight any more than you can turn a straight person gay. Sexual orientation simply does not work that way. Conversion therapy is opposed by all the principal psychology and psychiatry professional associations throughout the Western world. Here in Australia, our own Australian Psychological Society utterly rejects the effectiveness of reparative therapy and states that it has the potential to do great harm, especially to the young. Whether it’s Margaret Court, her church, or anyone else who espouses these practices, it is time they be held to account should any physical or psychological harm come to LGBT individuals as a result of their actions.
Great stuff. Well done for having the courage to speak out.
Beautifully written sal. See you at Pride!!
Sally G. Well put.
In the mid / late 60’s as a cross dressing teenager I was taken to the RCH to a psychiatrist. Over the year I have come to realize how lucky I was not having to go through the “hell” of “non working” therapy. Margaret Court; Go to Hell, ‘coz that’s where you will put people with your stupid ideas.
Right on Sally. Of course the stupidest thing about Margaret’s stance and others’ who feel this way is that “gender” is a line draw by society, it isn’t a line drawn in our minds. As long as society draws this line there will ALWAYS be those on either side of it, who mainstream society believes shouldn’t be there. Society, suck it up, trying to force others to conform to what your idea of what gender is, will lead to (as Sally says above) psychological harm and depression. You can’t “convert” a persons soul/spirit, all you can achieve is a form of mental brutality, which is purely and simply an attempt at brainwashing. So there!
Thank you for sharing this, Sally. Margaret Court should be ashamed for peddling the hurtful myth of “conversion therapy” – to say nothing of her generally bigoted attitudes as a whole.