Canada’s Conversion Therapy Ban Makes History

The National Parliament of Canada has advanced a bill that will effectively ban conversion therapy practices for the entire northern nation.

LGBTQ advocates across the globe celebrated the legislation that made good on Canada’s Liberal Party campaign promises from 2019. The bill is also being touted as one of the world’s most “comprehensive” and sweeping conversion bans to date. Other nations like Ecuador, Germany, and Malta have taken steps to limit the harmful practice, but Canada’s bill will be the swiftest roll out of anti-conversion therapy law to date.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau voiced his support for the legislation in a tweet last Tuesday. “Conversion therapy has no place in Canada,” he declares. “We’ll always stand up for LGBTQ2 Canadians and their rights.”

Although conversion therapy has been denounced by the World Health Organization and the United Nations (the latter of which called it “degrading” and “dehumanizing”), the practice still continues in many respected nations, including the United States. While bills have been proposed in U.S. that would restrain conversion therapy, they’ve been met with opposition from religious groups and people who claim that the therapy is “not a major issue.”

In reality, more than 700,000 Americans today report being survivors of conversion therapy attempts. Forms of conversion therapy can include talk therapy, aversion techniques, verbal abuse, and electroshock treatments. A separate survey revealed that the therapy also remains a widespread issue in Canada. In a pool of 9,000 queer men, as many as one in 10 reported being victims of conversion therapy, two-thirds of which was religiously driven. Seventy-five percent of that population underwent the abuse before the age of 20.

While the Biden administration hopes to follow in Trudeau’s footsteps, they’re facing an uphill battle. With a split Senate, it’s unlikely they will be able to pass any legislation as sweeping and concrete as Canada’s bill. American LGBTQ activists have set their sights on the next Senate election cycle, hoping to flip more GOP seats in order to pass progressive, queer legislation on to Biden’s desk.