‘Important first step’: Conversion therapy survivor shares significance of Canada banning practice

A ban on “conversion therapy” in Canada has been a long time coming, especially for those who have gone through it.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill to outlaw the traumatizing and discredited practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill makes it a criminal offence to force a person to undergo conversion therapy.

It received royal assent and is officially banned nation-wide as of Wednesday.

Jules Sherred, who lives in Duncan, B.C., survived the practice when he was 17 years old. The impacts left him suicidal until he finally felt comfortable transitioning in his 30s.

Related article: Senate passes legislation banning conversion therapy in Canada

In the early days, it involved shock therapy and aversion therapy.

“After some of those techniques were basically made illegal, they switched it to presenting it as trauma therapy or reparative therapy for people with female on original birth certificates, for trans women and non-binary people with male on original birth certificates. It was treated as a sexual deviance,” Sherred explained.

“But for people who are on the trans masculine end, we are told that … the reason why we have dysphoria is because we internalized misogyny, that we hate ourselves.”

He says the process essentially took the trauma he had experienced at home and used that as a reason for why he didn’t feel comfortable with his assigned gender.

“If you are not working through that trauma and not feeling comfortable in your body, then you are basically failing and you have to try harder. They make you feel like the more dysphoric you feel, the more you hate yourself and that you’re failing at what we’re supposed to do … and further weaponize those feelings against you.”

That leads to a vicious cycle.

“The more that the conversion therapy happens, the more dysphoric you feel naturally as a result of it being in your face that you do not identify with the way that society wants to assign you.”

Related articles:

• Canadian government introduces beefed-up bill banning conversion therapy

• B.C. Conservatives who voted against banning ‘conversion therapy’ ousted

It wasn’t until Sherred was in his thirties when things started looking up for him.

“I found a partner who saw me for who I am and things changed that way,” he said.

The legislation passed with support from all parties, and minimal debate.

“I’m really glad that it’s happened, despite everything. There’s still a lot of work to do, but this was a really, really important first step.”

Sherred says there’s much more to be done, adding he would like to see punishment for those who repeat harmful, disproven, and hateful rhetoric. He also says more work needs to be done for transgender rights, particularly when it comes to receiving healthcare.

“I’m still fighting to this day, still getting mistreated by doctors and nurses and stuff when I have to go to the hospital, being willfully misgendered.”

The next step, Sherred says, is for the B.C. courts to take action.

“The messages are still happening within secular elementary school and secondary school. [The courts] have to educate the public on what it means. There needs to be serious consequences to educators, to medical practitioners who are still practicing it, to psychologists.”

He also wants to see better supports in place so survivors can feel safe coming forward to talk about what happened to them, as well as real trauma therapy.

“Not conversion therapy dressed up as trauma therapy.”

But for now, it’s a win.

“I’m really happy and hopeful that no other person will have to go through what I had to go through.”