A woman in a man's body, a Quebecer who wanted to understand why she felt different and had to suppress her identity for almost 30 years after being misdiagnosed by a therapist, considered a conversion practice.
• Also read: Law against conversion therapy: No complaints for three years
“We are forced[e] Going into a closet, living a double life, hiding things, lying, and it becomes excessively difficult to live with,” illustrated Bianca (artificial name), who underwent such a practice in the late 1980s.
Drugs to impair libido, hypnosis or even psychotherapy, conversion practices can take different forms and can be “particularly harmful at a psychological level,” explained Laurent Breault, general director of the Emergence Foundation, which fights against homophobia and transphobia.
*NO RESALE / NO RESALE* The General Director of the Fondation Émergence, which fights against homophobia and transphobia, Laurent Breault, on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. PHOTO BY LAURENT BREAULT PHOTO BY LAURENT BREAULT
They are part of those explicit or implicit attempts to put pressure on a person to suppress or change their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Categorized
Even as a child, Bianca wondered why she wasn't a girl. Faced with a lack of answers, she moved on with her life and met her wife, but the question always lingered in the back of her mind.
At times she secretly wore women's clothing. It was his partner's discovery of one of these pieces that opened the discussion.
She decided to meet with a specialist to help her understand her situation. “I saw a renowned psychiatrist who treated sexual disorders in 1987,” she said.
The therapist diagnoses him with a female fetish, i.e. the desire to wear women's clothing.
“I was placed in this category, which was a kind of umbrella term for disorders associated with deviant sexual behavior. […] “Back then it was an attempt to bring me back into heteronormativity,” analyzed the now 65-year-old.
According to a survey conducted in 2022, 5% of LGBTQ+ people in Quebec report having participated in conversion therapy during their lifetime.
Feeling of shame
During the meetings, Bianca felt “ashamed” and “disadvantaged.” After experiencing depression, she decided to shed her feminine wardrobe and “move on.” [sa] life of man”.
“Sometimes I relapsed, I needed clothes to feel and express that femininity,” she said.
Then Bianca realized she no longer wanted to hide and took new steps with therapists who diagnosed her with gender dysphoria – the discrepancy between her feelings and her physical appearance. A little later she finally decided to transition, then to come out in 2018.
“When I met my other therapist and she said, 'This is what you have,' I let go of that guilt. It was 30 years of hell,” said the sixty-year-old.
Better equipped
Conversion therapy has been banned in Quebec since 2020 and in Canada in 2022, but continues to be practiced despite its ban, complained the director of the Fondation Émergence.
“It's just hidden as to be invisible,” he qualified.
On February 28, a national symposium on conversion therapy took place under the auspices of Émergence. The aim was to bring together frontline responders – such as the police or the school community – to learn how to identify and prevent these practices.
In Bianca's eyes, this is great progress and an awakening. “It's about getting allies to recognize people in the community to free them from the clutches of these practices,” she emphasized.