#BanConversionTherapy I have been affected by homophobia my entire life. Externally I can protest (I'm fortunate) against LGBTQ hate rhetoric. Inside, a constant drip drip drip erodes self-esteem, feelings of self-worth and security. You know - a friend suffers another transphobic attack; someone shouts 'batty boy' at me randomly on the street; I see the bruised black eye on a young guy as he tries to laugh off the queer-bashing; the pope says gay marriage is a sin; the government will ban conversion therapy, but oh yeah, didn't really mean it; you lose yet another LGBT friend to suicide...
Step one of conversion therapy is admitting the 'problem', and step five has you admitting your failings to your higher power. (It's misappropriated from similar 12-step self-help things like Alcoholics Anonymous, etc).
'Admission' is the first teaser track from Paleday's forthcoming album, which I'm calling 'Controversion', out June 2021.
Conversion therapy is massively dangerous because it attempts to normalise shame, and 'cure' or erase something that doesn't need fixing, usually with warped and cherry-picked extracts from highly selective versions of religious texts. And it tries to do it whilst sounding like a reasoned and reasonable thing to do. In doing so, it doesn't just screw up recipients (although it surely does); it legitimises every single insult, act of oppression or violence against us. And so the hate goes round and around.
And the government promising to ban it, but not actually doing so, adds just another layer to that legitimising of bigotry.