The BBC has been hit with a string of formal complaints about documentary ‘Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?’, which aired last week.
The programme followed former gender doctor Kenneth Zucker, who was sacked from a clinic treating trans people in Canada because of concerns about his attempts to ‘cure’ transgender children. As part of treatment Dr Zucker encouraged parents to “set limits on things like cross-dressing” and stop them playing with “girlish” toys, in order to convince trans people to “feel more secure about his or her actual gender”. His practices were disavowed by Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, where he had run the Gender Identity Service, after concerns were raised about the harmful treatments.
In a coincidentally-timed announcement, today 13 groups – including the UK Council for Psychotherapy, the Royal College of GPs, the British Psychoanalytic Council and the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy – signed a statement disavowing any attempts to ‘cure’ trans people.
A statement from the health bodies said: “We the undersigned UK organisations wish to state that the practice of conversion therapy has no place in the modern world. It is unethical and harmful and not supported by evidence.
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.
Sexual orientations and gender identities are not mental health disorders, although exclusion, stigma and prejudice may precipitate mental health issues for any person subjected to these abuses.
Anyone accessing therapeutic help should be able to do so without fear of judgement or the threat of being pressured to change a fundamental aspect of who they are.”
Health experts condemn attempts to ‘cure’ trans people in wake of controversial BBC documentary
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