Conversion therapy is not care.

It is not curiosity.

It is not neutral exploration.

It is a structured attempt to train queer people, including children, out of themselves.

And now, once again, harm is being dressed up as “free speech” and handed a more respectable suit.

What makes this especially grim is how familiar it is.

Queer people are told the same lie in new language every few years:

- we’re just helping

- we’re just guiding

- we’re just asking questions

- we’re just keeping options open

No.

When the goal is to move a child away from their sexuality or gender identity and toward something more acceptable to adults, that is not therapy.

That is ideological correction with a clinical face.

A lot of people who’ve never sat in the wreckage of this kind of shame will talk about this as a debate.

It isn’t.

Some practices are harmful even when they sound polite.

Some violence arrives in a soft voice.

If you are LGBTQ+ and reading this, there is nothing therapeutic about being taught to distrust yourself.

And there is nothing loving about calling erasure care.