Helen King sharedconversations What do the bishops think? LLF and trans people
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Towards an Understanding of Deference in the Church
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love House of Bishops overrides trans concerns
Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News Truth – The First Casualty in War
Given General Synod has voted to reject conversion therapy, it is disappointing that no bishop (to my knowledge) – let alone the House of Bishops together – has issued a statement condemning the U-turn on trans conversion therapy and calling for trans conversion therapy to be included in any ban. Not a difficult thing to do.
I agree. Imagine how powerful it would be if the House of Bishops issued a statement supporting a total ban on conversion therapy for all. Or even a statement saying that if legislation gets to the House of Lords looking to ban conversion therapy for lesbian, gay and bisexual people only, that the Lords Spiritual themselves would introduce an amendment to get trans and non binary people included.
There seems to be a coincidental theme to all this week’s blogs – power. That comes with the related ideas of deference and service. Stephen describes the different aspects of deference. Helen shows the problems when there is only power but no accountability. What is really going on at episcopal meetings? Why is it so opaque? Colin shows what happens when those in power are seen not to be listening to legitimate concerns. To put it in context of Stephen’s article, it is when the people with a broken car are telling the mechanic how to fix the problem, instead… Read more »
The term “conversion therapy” refers to attempts to alter people’s sexual orientation. In recent years it has been stolen and misapplied to attempts to get people to accept and come to terms with their immutable sex. The latter, whether they are likely to be successful or not, are a different issue and should be considered separately, not tacked on to a bill dealing with conversion therapy proper.
In 2017 NHS England, together with all the major UK health, counselling and psychotherapeutic bodies, called for a ban on attempts to change someone’s gender identity as well as someone’s sexual orientation in the 2nd Version of their Memorandum of Understanding on this practice: ‘Conversion therapy is the term for therapy that assumes certain sexual orientations or gender identities are inferior to others, and seeks to change or suppress them on that basis.The 2017 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) makes it clear that conversion therapy in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation (including asexuality) is unethical, potentially harmful and is not… Read more »
Yes, thank you. That is precisely what I mean when I say that the term “conversion therapy” has been stolen and misapplied.
Wonderful to see the Methodist Church reaffirming its policy on conversion therapy not just generally but on its own premises, and for gender identity as well as sexual orientation. Will Church of England now follow suit please. ‘The Assistant Secretary of the Conference, the Revd Michaela Youngson said, “The Methodist Church position is that, regardless of government decisions, it is not permitted for conversion therapy, including trans conversion therapy to take place on Methodist premises, and that no conversion therapy can take place in the name of the Methodist Church.”‘ https://www.methodist.org.uk/about-us/news/latest-news/all-news/the-methodist-church-reaffirms-its-opposition-to-conversion-therapy/?fbclid=IwAR1BXT-UgmdjFtW4pvueXjBDtRQeiv0yHyaR717_PN-zLC_-yN69k5s7Jm