The Norwegian Labour Party has proposed a new law against conversion therapy aimed at LGBTI people. For some reason a local lesbian trans-exclusionary “radical feminist” (TERF), Tonje Gjevjon, thinks this is a bad idea.

There should be nothing controversial about this. After all, we know how much harm this kind of treatment has caused gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex and transgender people.

The use of electric shock, nausea inducing drugs, physical punishment and intense indoctrination and social pressure is never good for anyone’s psyche. It is torture, plain and simple. And it does not work.

So why would a lesbian contest a policy that bans such practices? You guessed it: She wants to use conversion therapy against transgender children and trans adults. She wants to use the kind of torture that has been used to force lesbians like herself back into the closet, against other members of the rainbow community.

To be honest with you, I find this much more offensive than the arguments made by the right wing religious fundamentalists. Because she knows what kind of harm this treatment does. She knows that these are the kind of tactics traditionalists have used for ages to control marginalized groups. The religious fanatics may fool themselves into thinking that they are actually helping. She cannot.

Three of the parties in the Norwegian government – The Conservatives, The right wing populist Progess Party and the Liberals – are supporting a ban. They do so against the will of the fourth party in the cabinet: The Christian Populist Party. So you can say that the only party in Norway supporting Gjevjon’s stand is the one of the Conservative Christians.

And that is exactly the kind of company trans-exclusionary radical feminists are keeping these days. They are in bed with their own enemy. Bizarre and tragic!

See also my article on the similarities between homophobic propaganda and TERF activism.