🏳️🌈 Why "Conversion Therapy" Always Fails
In reality, the repeated failure of gay "conversion therapy" is not news or controversial. But to many Americans (+ 7 SCOTUS justices), forcibly changing someone's sexual orientation upon pain of death (or life) is still a "debate". Lamentably, these justices-along with a plurality of Americans abiding in the "la-la land" of Christian (or some other religious form of) heteronormativity, seem to think this failure is minuscule and without harm or negative consequence. This week's ruling proves what so many of 'us' 🏳️🌈 who know better-already knew: that conventional religious and heteronormative thinking means never having to think critically about Queer sexuality in a mixed population. For these thinkers, any conversation about conversion is about "rights", not results; not efficacy; not science; not standards and regulations; not good theology; and definitely not ethics.
Before I dive down this rabbit hole (if you'll oblige me), let me first shout out to Justice #KetanjiBrownJackson for coming through and serving the cogent rebuttals to Conversion Therapy's claimed efficacy, and the slippery slope of potentially ruining #healthcare that this ruling exposes. Jackson, rather than reducing the conversation about suicide-inducing snake oil to #religion #rights and #regulations alone, wrote a dissent that is, and will be "one for the books".
Now onto that rabbit hole.... ⬇️
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One of my earliest points of #deconstruction as a #BlackQueer Christian was rooted in the concepts of "divine will" + "goodness" + autonomy. Religious indoctrination (particularly in Abrahamic faiths) teaches that EVERYTHING we see and experience on earth as human beings is "ordered" by a good, loving God -and- that that God "desires" us to live and flourish as a testament to its (usually 'his') glory and divine providence. Essentially, we are if nothing else, to be virtual advertisements for the power of God unto the world (e.g. the "unsaved"). Songs and phrases like "Let thy Will Be Done" at the end of the Lord's Prayer, "God alone", "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children" are among many that use sloganeering and platitudes to communicate a doctrine of Divine Providence , Universal Inclusion and Benevolence through Christian belief. Coupled with Omnipotence, all God's children are supposedly uniquely operating in a world where everything seen and experienced is a result of God's will and power. So what happens when you are self-loathing, suicidal, chronically depressed and institutionally bound to discrimination, dehumanization and systematic demonization? What happens when your sexual expression, imagination and orientation determines your negative well-being, or even requires it? What happens when you are made to move through the divinely ordained of homo-prejudice, systemic marginalization, pitiless suffering and negative self-image while everyone else sins-away freely...and is still somehow heavenly bound? How is this experience part of a good God's "ordered steps?"
Equal Justice w/Judge Eboni K. Williams (YouTube): "A Father Sues His Son for Quitting Conversion Therapy" For those #Queer people who have no exposure to an alternative, secular philosophy, way of knowing, meaning-making or empirical information, the only alternative explanation for their suffering is that it is a result of God's will and power. In other words, God wants you to suffer and die here on earth on account of your consensual, adult sexual orientation. He wants you to off-yourself...or at least submit to a life of #asceticism, self-pity, skulking-around and lovelessness. But this leaves the #Queer person (and the religious zealot, homophobe, staunch believer) in a theological, rhetorical and philosophical conundrum. God is supposed to want "the best" for us-and is always 'workin on our behalf' for the greater good. "Bad things" are of the "devil", while "Good things" are supposedly "of God" (i.e. Let thy Will be Done). Given this framework, how does the queer person decide which is which? If the Devil is also enacting his "will" against God's, what can "God" exactly do? And who is more powerful? Conceding or rejecting this worldview is an either a life-taking or life-saving problem here on earth, not to be reconciled by forbearance and some great moment of heavenly orientation (e.g. an 'entrance exam') to be conducted at a later, cosmic date following our earthly demise. #Queerpeople, particularly #QueerChristians are confronted with this theological, demonizing conundrum in the most temporal, and critical ways. Ways that straight people (see SCTOUS arguments) do not often, if ever wrestle with. Their mental health ...our #mentalhealth rather...relies on a resolution of this cognitive dissonance in the here and now. People have died, people are dying and people will die-for not evaluating the efficacy of these doctrines and associated homophobic texts, religious screeds and legislative acts with the appropriate scrutiny. No need to project into the future-it has already happened.
The conundrum presented is: Either the "God of the Universe" is in charge, or it/he/them/they/she IS NOT. A "Devil" causing things to be other than what an all-powerful God intended on earth, means that God is not "all-powerful". It also means that his "divine will" is not being acted out on the landscape of life as we've been told. The Devil is apparently busy...and a true rival for power. So the #BlackQueer #Queer #LGBTQ person...Christian or not...religious or not...must look at the facts, as applied to their sexuality and the divine question. They must ask of themselves: "Does God care that I'm Queer?" I have long submitted that the answer must be "no". #Conversiontherapy cannot be within "will" of God. After all, God created us/he/she/it/they/them. Additionally preponderance of evidence clearly indicates that any conversion therapies are products of (1) a Man or "men", (2) a Devil or "devils", (3) some combination of both these entities, and/or (4) something else entirely yet to be tested and discovered. I like many were taught that suicide is "of the devil". Death -we are taught- is "of the enemy". Depression -we are told- is also "the devil". But what the #MoralMajority, #antiLGBT advocates, #homophobes, #religiouszealots, #rightwing and all of their associates have told propagandized for years is a rigid message that: God wants you to "convert" to heterosexuality (and/or not to "practice" homosexuality). And somehow, unlike the creation of the universe in Genesis, he can't do this himself. He needs your help. I have personally known people who were hauled off to Conversion Therapy camps, unwillingly. Coercively. I have also known and spoken to people engaged in other forms of bunk therapy to "correct" homosexual feelings (e.g. shock therapy). Objectively, they DO NOT WORK. Even for "hetero-prejuidiced" religious believer, empirical evidence shows this "therapy" is not therapy, but deadly (i.e. harmful) quackery and anti-scientific practices designed to comfort people who prefer religious obeisance and dogmatism over #science they claim to advocate. Which is to say, this weeks #SCOTUS ruling about the "right" to #freespeech about a potential conversion of the LGBTQ human being was not only argued on the wrong grounds, but it could never be an internally consistent religious argument...even if you are religious, Christian, Muslim, etc. Conversion camps have not only already been found to be ineffective in converting sexuality from queer to straight, but to be even worse-a corrupt indignation and depressive ride on the long train suicidal ideation and eventual self-harm (i.e. death). What's being argued for here (dishonestly) by the #conservatives is the "right" to be unscientific and harmful. This is not science but rather, unfalsifiable, haughty, coercive and authoritarian, systemic behavior dressing itself up as "meek" and "lowly" obedience and sanctified virtue. Unless the benevolent, omnipotent "God" whose "will" being done on earth is for you to eventually kill yourself after years of agony, wasted youth, shame and financial resources trying to be someone you're not just to please your parents or pastor....then that God's will cannot be for a #queer person to "become straight". In addition to thanking #JusticeJackson for offering the appropriate rebuttal to the unscientific, bigoted and categorically erroneous legal arguments of her colleagues, we owe it to each other, and our fellow homophobic theists to state the obvious: That in conclusion: God at best-simply doesn't care about your LGBTQ sexual expressions, imaginations and sex life. And that at worst-it is only man who has simply created homophobic God...to reflect their own, already homophobic beliefs. Either way, Conversion Therapy DOESN'T WORK. Additional Reading: "Conversion Therapy Doesn't Work-and it is Soul Crushing." -Religion News
#TextualCriticism #WhereWereHeaded #BlackPodcaster #AfricanAmericanHumanism
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If you or someone you know is need of professional therapy or referrals to LGBTQ-affirming psychotherapists, visit the Secular Therapy Project (https://www.seculartherapy.org/psych-team) for resources and mental health providers near you. 💫