It is false that sex reassignment surgeries are equivalent to “conversion therapies”
One year after the approval of a reform to ban so-called "conversion therapies", social media users spread misinformation about sex reassignment surgeries.
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October 11 marked one year since the Senate of the Republic approved a reform to prohibit Efforts to Correct Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (ECOSIG) or the misnamed “conversion therapies”.
organizations and individuals called on the Chamber of Deputies to put the reform to a vote in the Plenary and for it to be approved.
In response, some social media users began spreading misinformation about gender transitions and reassignment surgeries. They argued that these should also be banned, equating them with “conversion therapies.”
However, gender identity coercion (ECOSIG) actually consists of various forms of torture that lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to people's health and human rights. Imposing, attempting to change, "correct," or repressing the gender identity with which a person identifies would constitute gender identity coercion.
At the same time, so-called “conversion therapies” constitute a type of false and fraudulent advertising since they claim to cure gender diversity, which is neither a disorder nor an illness.
Transition , on the other hand, is when trans people begin to live their lives according to the gender with which they identify and not according to the sex they were assigned at birth .
This process of recognizing identity may or may not include hormone therapy, sex reassignment surgery, and other medical procedures that always require informed consent.
In the case of trans children, only a superficial change in gender occurs, which may be in name, clothing and haircuts, while in puberty (with the authorization of mothers and fathers) they can access reversible mechanisms in hormonal matters, but until the stage of adulthood there will be the possibility of making permanent decisions.
Transition is not conversion therapy
A year after the Senate approved a reform to prohibit Efforts to Correct Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (ECOSIG), human rights organizations demanded on October 11 that the Chamber of Deputies put the reform to a vote in the Plenary so that it can be approved, sent to the Executive and finally published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF).
In response to the call, some social media users replied that they hoped "conversion therapy, where men are castrated to look like women," would be banned. They also expressed fallacious ideas: "The real conversion therapy is the sexualization of children, the amputation of limbs, and the hormone therapy of children and young people."
But the transition has no relation to “conversion therapies”, since the latter are efforts that seek to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent and through physical and psychological violence .
While transition is a process by which trans people begin to make changes that involve not only medical interventions, but also personal, social and legal aspects in order to live according to their gender identity instead of the sex they were assigned at birth.
In the first instance, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ( IACHR ) and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) uphold that the recognition of the gender identity of any person (adult and minor) must be guaranteed without them having to prove medical interventions, surgical interventions, hormonal treatments or other procedures.
When discussing surgical treatment, the Protocol for Non-Discriminatory Access to Medical Care Services for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transvestite, Transsexual and Intersex People of the Ministry of Health states that the different procedures that can help these people adapt their bodies to the gender identity with which they identify should be addressed.
“In trans women, surgical treatments range from rhinoplasty, facial feminization, breast and buttock implants, to sex reassignment surgery. In trans men, the most frequent procedure they wish to undergo is mastectomy, and a small percentage desire phalloplasty,” the protocol describes.
The Ministry of Health specifies that any intervention on the person, whether physical or psychological, must have timely and informed consent , based on the right of patients to decide with the best possible information on the best course of care for their condition.
“Informed consent must include a clear explanation of the diagnosis, the technique and procedure to be used, its scope and the expected results or prognoses, in accordance with scientific knowledge.”
In the case of adult trans people, mental health follow-up must be established for each surgical procedure for at least six months, three before and three after the event.
Regarding trans children and adolescents, Verificado MX and PRESENTES had already confirmed that it is false that these procedures are carried out on minors, since they are not legalized or permitted in the country.
The Ministry of Health protocol specifies that a multidisciplinary team, the parents or guardians and the minors, can only jointly consider the use of puberty blockers for the purpose of postponing the development of secondary sexual characteristics , and if necessary, give more time and confirm the decision of the minor to begin a hormone therapy process.
At the regional level, the IACHR states : “when we talk about medical interventions for gender affirmation, we should not only think about surgeries, which in fact are not performed on people whose bodies are still growing, but we also refer to hormone blocking and replacement treatments.”
Both puberty suppression and hormone replacement therapy are two components of the gender affirmation process that have been supported with evidence by the Endocrine Society , the World Partnership for Transgender Health (WPATH), and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ( IACHR ).
ECOSIGs are not therapies, they are torture.
In 2020, UN Independent Expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz concluded in his report on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity that so-called “conversion therapies” are “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.
The Reference Guide for Mental Health Professionals in Combating ECOSIG describes these practices as physical and psychological abuses that may include:
- Coercion and lack of consent
- Unlawful deprivation of liberty
- Verbal violence and threats
- Forced use of medications
- Sexual assaults
- Aversion methods
- Electroshocks
- Exorcisms
That same year, the Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) even declared that offering Efforts to Correct Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (ECOSIG) are “a form of deception, false advertising and fraud.”
In Mexico alone, 1 in 10 LGBTIQ+ people were forced by their parents to go to a psychologist or religious authority in order to "correct" them.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), this represents at least 318,791 people who were subjected to these abuses in 2021. And this occurs despite the fact that, since 2016, the World Psychiatric Association has stated that there is no solid scientific evidence indicating that sexual orientation and gender identity can be changed, so “any intervention that attempts to treat something that is not a disorder is completely unethical.”
Homosexuality cannot be considered a pathological condition; even the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) of the World Health Organization (WHO) states that it is a natural variation of human sexuality, not a disease.
Similarly, trans identity is not listed in the 'Mental and behavioral disorders' section of the ICD-11, but rather in the 'Conditions related to sexual health' , which clarifies that trans people do not have a mental health disorder, and that classifying them as such is misinformation.
The WHO's argument for maintaining "gender discordance" in the ICD-11 is that this way it can ensure that trans people have access to health services.
While it is true that, for years, medical science, particularly psychiatry, considered homosexual and trans people to be ill, currently multiple health institutions support the rights of LGBTIQ+ people and recognize that there is no binary and dichotomous gender identity (man and woman), but rather many identity possibilities around gender that are different from the hegemonic one, which does not constitute a mental health problem.
Links / Sources
Senate approves bill to prohibit and penalize sexual reorientation therapies
Myths and realities of the Trans Children's Initiative | Association for Transgender Children
Ending "conversion therapies": a human rights expert's fight | United Nations (UN)
Frequently Asked Questions about Transgender Issues | Human Rights Watch
Disinformation culminates in transphobia and institutional violence | Verificado MX
The institutions and companies behind Ecosig in Mexico | Presentes Agency
REPORT ON CONVERSION THERAPIES | UN
National Survey on Sexual and Gender Diversity (ENDISEG) 2021 | INEGI
International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision | WHO
“CURES” FOR A DISEASE THAT DOESN'T EXIST | Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
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