Conversion therapy is a poisonous prehistoric practice | Emma Kay

Many will not be aware of conversion therapy, known also as ‘gay-cure therapy’. It is a verbal treatment or similar activity that seeks to ‘cure’ a person’s feelings of sexual attraction other than heterosexual or to change thoughts on their gender identity. Such therapy may also be a way to force an attraction to the opposite sex, or identification with a person’s recorded birth sex.

The word ‘therapy’ one would assume is a natural medical procedure, but it can be misleading. There is no scientific basis for the use of ‘conversion therapy’. Applying such practices can vary a great deal with no current regulation for the practice. In its raw form, it is not medically certified and who knows what you are getting? To many, such a treatment would be emotional torture.

It comes from a poisonous prehistoric view that being LGBTQ+ is akin to having a mental illness that can be ‘cured’.

This is a government lacking care for other people’s freedoms and right to feel safe, secure and alive. The stakes are not complicated here, just an overriding recklessness that endangers people who already face a host of daily difficulties.

The government has decided not to outlaw the practice despite promises it would finally be banned. In the last Queen’s Speech our government promised legislation to ban conversion therapy stating, ‘people should be free to be themselves in the UK. The ban will eliminate coercive practices which cause mental and physical harm to individuals’.

So, freedom for SOME people, not everyone. How did Orwell put it? ‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.’

We are an advanced society that cites tolerance but does not extend the hand of safety to others. It is a tragedy this abhorrent practice has not been scrapped. So, what can we infer from this, laziness? A lack of awareness? Care has not been given.

The government needs to reverse this dangerous decision and commit to the ban. This is 2022 not 1950.

BLACK WOMEN ARE CONSTANTLY DEHUMANISED BECAUSE OF THEIR HAIR

Women, particularly women of colour, have always had their hair policed, berated and pushed into a punchline.

Entertainment reporter Giulianna Ranic crudely said actress Zendaya looked like she ‘smelt of patchouli oil and weed’ on her Oscar debut in 2015. An offensive racist, stereotype, based on what was on top of her head.

Media focus was on the slap between Will and Rock that reduced Jada Smith to little more than her locks. Rock’s gaff was devoid of tact, but it stems from something more personal. Jada slapped on a frozen smile and kept her composure. It spoke volumes about how black women are constantly dehumanised, their identity used as ‘just a joke’. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO INTENTION OF EVER HAVING THEIR JABS

Like so many up and down the country my partner and I have been doing a coughing chorus duet which has lasted for days.

We both thought how lucky we had been to have avoided catching Covid for two years. But thinking how well we were doing and people packing away masks and mingling freely sadly softened us and made us sick.

I’m so grateful for vaccines as without them the outcome may have been different. My partner has suffered more than me and like so many I dread to think how he would have fared without the lifesaving vaccine. It baffles me no end that there are still people walking about without any intention of having a vaccine, gambling with their lives.