Conservative justices signal openness to allowing conversion therapy(sfchronicle.com)
19 points by softwaredoug 19 hours ago | 12 comments
- JumpCrisscross 19 hours agoCorrection: they’re open to banning states from restricting conversion therapy.[-]
- amanaplanacanal 17 hours agoIsn't banning restrictions the same as allowing? What am I missing?[-]
- wk_end 17 hours agoNo. “Allowing” still opens up the possibility for restrictions, it just means there isn’t a blanket prohibition. “Banning restrictions” means that everyone is forced to allow it.
- plantwallshoe 17 hours agoWe need some consistency here.
If you, your child, and your doctor all agree that taking hormones and puberty blockers is the best thing for them, it should be allowed.
If you, your child, and your doctor all agree that the best thing for them is to take conversion therapy, then that should be allowed.
[-]- mackeye 17 hours agowhat!? conversion therapy does not work. if you, your child, and your doctor all agree that the best thing for them is a lobotomy, should that be allowed?[-]
- throwawaymaths 17 hours agois there evidence that puberty blockers work? IIRC the original report is the only one that reported an effect and subsequent studies done more carefully show no net effect more than potential selection bias and plenty of physiological repercussions[-]
- mackeye 15 hours agoanecdotally, my trans friends who took puberty blockers and eventually started hormones are happier for it, and my trans friend who was sent to conversion therapy jumped in front of a train (and lived, and is well now).
the literature is relatively sparse on puberty blockers, though. i found a review [0] which is inconclusive, but points to better psychosocial outcomes at the expensive of factors such as bone density and emotional stability.
i do think it's crucial to point out that the dichotomy is not "puberty blockers vs. nothing", but "puberty blockers vs. gender dysphoria". i recently read a piece about the extremely poor treatment of an SRS patient, who reflected 10 years later and claimed she'd still go through the treatment to have had the surgery, as she would likely not be here otherwise. the description of the surgery frankly made me dizzy with unease (and i work in the surgical OR). it's a sensation i imagine is not at all unfamiliar to trans people. as i understand it, they are born with this unwanted operation performed in advance, and live through this, and eventually an unwanted puberty.
the issue is then, how do we alleviate this? conversion therapy is conclusively, not an answer. puberty blockers are inconclusive, from what i understand, but the research which has been performed points to lower suicide attempt rates among trans kids.
[0]: https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/camh....
- plantwallshoe 17 hours agoYeah probably[-]
- NewJazz 17 hours agoHorrifically bad take.[-]
- plantwallshoe 17 hours agoOh the better take is “my medically trained and board certified doctor says my kid needs a medical procedure but some 80 year old state congressman who needs his grandkids to unlock is iPhone says I shouldn’t, so I won’t”[-]
- yawpitch 7 hours agoNo medically trained and board certified doctor that isn’t driven more by their hypocritical convictions than their Hypocratic oath has ever said a kid should be forced to engage in heterosexual activity against their will.
If you have found a non-trained and never certified or licensed effectively voodoo practitioner willing to make that sort of utterly immoral and malign recommendation, then you’ve sought them out because you’re just as or more delusional than they are.
- bediger4000 17 hours agoWith all due respect, observing a lack of consistency usually means that a "hidden variable" remains to be discovered. Perhaps if we take a holistic view of recent SCOTUS decisions, we could apprehend a hidden variable or two.
I conjecture that conservative culture war topics are the hidden variable(s) and that the Roberts Court is forcing a conservative view on all these issues, whether there's a constitutional, logical, or precedent reason or not.