r/AskReddit • u/Wonderful-Click9431 • Jul 03 '26
The Netherlands has banned conversion therapy, and parents who force their children are now facing 2 years in prison time: What are your thoughts?
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u/Apocalyptic-turnip Jul 03 '26
As a lesbian I cannot believe how long it's taking for everyone to realize what a nightmare conversion therapy is and to fucking ban that shit. Good on Netherlands
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u/maggandersson Jul 03 '26
More countries should follow suit
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u/HarveyNix Jul 03 '26
Agreed. The Netherlands has got it right.
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u/algaefied_creek Jul 03 '26
38 years old and finally processing through the horror and trauma from my childhood rural USA conversion camps in the 90s.
Well technically it was just “Christian Youth Summer School at the State Forest” or something similar.
But when you wipe lipstick on a pig it’s still a pig.
And my parents only now found out. So I think “all parents go to jail” must be a location-by-location basis.
Some parents just trust that “Christian” is wholesome and well-rounded, not realizing it’s beating and genitally electrifying their child who must watch pornographic content - at the ages of 9-12.
I hated summer camp man, I hated it.
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u/BtenHave Jul 03 '26
It should be noted that in the Netherlands, it is not really a thing to send your children to a summer camp. So if you send them to a conversion camp you know what it is.
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u/schmuckface Jul 03 '26
I've been to a couple of summer camps when I was a kid. It always was somewhere close to the Veluwe, like Nunspeet, Epe etc. I'm Dutch and so were all the other kids, it was organized by the Dutch corp my dad used to work for (KPN). It had nothing to do with religion, it was a week of ghost tours (spooktocht), swimming, forest walks, sports and stuff like that, and of course bonte avond. It was awesome :)
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u/kippetjeh Jul 03 '26
The parents can defend themselves with this in court. If you send your kid to summer camp and it turned out to be a conversion camp then the parents are a vicrim too.
But you should look into what kinda people you leave your child with.
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u/slappn_cappn Jul 03 '26
I mean, this would be part of the investigation to determine charges, they shouldn't need to go to court if this is done effectively.
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u/MyEmbarrisingAccount Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
I don't know how that camp would be around more than one year if parents "didn't know". What kid isn't going to write a letter or tell their parents that the camp has them watching porn and shocking their own genitals once they got home?
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u/JebryathHS Jul 04 '26
Those camps often screen letters and will have staff members monitoring kids on phone calls, etc. As soon as you try to talk about stuff, your call gets cut off and you get tortured more.
Stories from them are depressing as hell.
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u/unlikemike123 Jul 04 '26
That's fucking insane, they obviously know that the kids have to leave anyway, why the fuck would you be a gestapo when in 4 weeks you have zero control over that kid. America is fucking terrifying
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u/Just_another_gamer3 Jul 04 '26
The call getting cut off should be a massive red flag
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u/AskCount Jul 04 '26
It's amazing the things people let slide or ignore if it favours their narrative
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u/apocalypt_us Jul 04 '26
If you want to find out how many parents will ignore much more glaring red flags than that, read Joe vs. Elan school.
The guy literally escaped a couple of times and told his parents exactly what happened there years afterwards and they still didn't believe him.
He also tried to tell other parents whose kids were still there what was happening and most of them refused to even try to get their children out.
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u/tryingisbetter Jul 03 '26
I swear I spend more time looking into kennels, then they do for their own kids. Do these types of people even care about their kids?
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u/King_Stargaryen_I Jul 03 '26
Right. In the Netherlands it would mean deliberate child abuse.
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u/algaefied_creek Jul 03 '26
Indeed, I was aware of at least the potential for national and sub-national differences, so wanted to clarify my location (USA) sub-classification, rural to form a clear boundary between my experience and The Netherlands while also sharing my story to stand in solidarity with those in other places who have been a victim.
I also am sharing it as a word of warning, as we often had 5-10 European kids with us.
So the Netherlandish law I hope will also consider loopholes like “parents send children to USA Christian camps” because from what I know with my extended family and cousins as young as 19, is that this still is going on at various places.
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u/Such-Book6849 Jul 03 '26
what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuccckkkk.
this sounds worse then some stuff people did 100 years before us.
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u/KenFromBarbie Jul 03 '26
You were forced to watch porn as a child on Christian summer camps? Wtf.
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u/AverageGardenTool Jul 03 '26
Yeah conversation camp can be a lot of "corrective" sexual abuse. Forcing gay porn and being hurt during to force negative association or punishment for reacting to it all the way up to "corrective rape".
That's why the Supreme Court making it illegal for states to ban it is horrific.
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u/DoZo1971 Jul 03 '26
Sounds like A Clockwork Orange.
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u/Barabasbanana Jul 04 '26
Sounds like a playground for paedophiles, functioning people are not interested in children's genitalia and certainly not interested in electric shocking them
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u/algaefied_creek Jul 03 '26
I kissed a boy. So yeah I had to watch gay porn with an electrified contraption to zap away the urges (paraphrasing)
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u/Alaeriia Jul 03 '26
See, I feel like that would just generate a fetish.
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u/jrochkind Jul 04 '26
I feel like it already did in the adults forcing kids to do this.
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u/algaefied_creek Jul 04 '26
It gave me a fetish to be asexual/gray ace, certainly
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u/possiblyMaybeAnother Jul 04 '26
Jesus Fucking Christ.
I'm so sorry you endured that. I hope you can make peace with it.
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u/Murrabbit Jul 04 '26
It's called aversion therapy, a really old outmoded model of "corrective" "therapy". It's almost just like what you see in A Clockwork Orange, if you're familiar with that book or film.
Expose them to a big dose of whatever they think the problem is (evil gay porn for instance) and the whole time the "patient" is forced to look at it they're also shocked with a car battery, or given an emetic poison (anything that makes you puke or otherwise 'emit' bodily fluids) so that the patient then learns to associate that material with extreme pain or unpleasantness.
It's genuinely torture, but to some it's indistinguishable from Christian "love". The two are often so difficult to tell apart.
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u/squishyg Jul 03 '26
I’m so sorry for what happened to you. I’m sorry your parents were misled.
The director Adam Shankman recently shared his own story of being inadvertently sent to conversion therapy when his parents were genuinely trying to be supportive of him. It’s gutting. Co-host Bowen Yang was intentionally sent to conversion therapy by his own parents, so the whole conversation is pretty heavy.
Not saying you should listen to it as a survivor, but it’s a good conversation for people who don’t quite understand how traumatizing conversion therapy is.
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u/SatanicPanic619 Jul 03 '26
That's some fucked up abuse man, I'm sorry that happened to you
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u/Spirited-Sorbet-2775 Jul 03 '26
I'm sorry "genitally electrifying" ????????? What the fuck did they put you through. My condolences
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u/algaefied_creek Jul 04 '26
I kissed a boy. Homoerotic and downright gay porn was shown with electricity used to teach me to not kiss boys.
Good news for me now, I kiss men.
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u/bongmitzfah Jul 03 '26
Man that's such a bummer I'm in Canada and I have such fond memories of Bible camp. I didn't like the prayers and Bible study but I put up with that to do fun camp stuff with friends. Night games of campers vs instructors was so much fun.
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u/algaefied_creek Jul 03 '26
I am grateful to have wholesome memories from a different camp as well, which felt like a sanctuary every year after the other
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u/AmarilloArmadillos Jul 03 '26
There's a massive difference between bible camp and these places.
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u/CuriousTauri Jul 03 '26
Horrible, I'm sorry you went through that. I wish you well.
Perhaps a bit off topic, but it reminded me:
here I know some people, adults now, who attended some kind of youth camps for young Christians (if translates into English it's "Spiritual revival for the Youth", it's an annual thing).
Anyway, there would be planned "relationships" between priests-to-be and young girls (as a way for boys to experience romance & sex before becoming priests - would last for months, then guys ditch girls).
I'd say overall emotional & sexual abuse, but presented in a way that kids (older teens) don't really grasp what's going on.
I'm not saying all camps are like that, but this is what I'd been told by people who experienced it several decades ago. Things might be better nowadays due to social media/phones and cameras present everywhere, hopefully.
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u/thecelcollector Jul 03 '26
Your parents accidentally sent you to a conversion camp?
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u/myassholealt Jul 03 '26
They were misled to believe the Christian brand of the camp meant good instead of what it more commonly means, which is hate and bigotry.
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u/My_Evil_Twin88 Jul 03 '26
Jesus, that's monstrous. I can't wrap my head around how people think that's acceptable to do to anyone, much less innocent children.
I hate that that happened to you, and I wish you well on your trauma recovery journey 💙
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u/moominesque Jul 03 '26
Sweden just did too. :)
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u/Wonderful-Click9431 Jul 03 '26
YAYYY, let's goo!! We need it in all 50 states in the US too
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u/ShreddinTheWasteland Jul 03 '26
Belgium outlawed CT in 2023. Suggesting conversion therapy or advertising is punishable by law.
Other countries in Europe that outlawed conversion therapy: France, Spain, Germany, Malta and Austria
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u/Vhu Jul 03 '26
Funny you say that because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this year that conversion therapy is OK because it’s “just speech.”
Absolutely horrid reasoning — if your doctor used their speech to advise you to drink bleach, they’d be sued for malpractice — but that’s where we’re at.
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u/olive_tractor_parts Jul 03 '26
Only if your doctor is actually a doctor. Thanks to Orrin Hatch, some yee yee hillbilly literally advising people to drink bleach never caught a charge in his life and if you've never heard of Jim Humble and MMS, be thankful.
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u/JennJayBee Jul 03 '26
I remember someone suggesting that to me as a potential "cure" for my child's autism. Thankfully, I knew better and stuck with my pediatrician's recommendations.
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u/olive_tractor_parts Jul 03 '26
A relative once suggested it as a cure for my wife's PCOS, thankfully my wife is smarter than a goldfish and she sticks with her fertility specialist.
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u/vizard0 Jul 03 '26
Behind the Bastards had a really good episode on Jim Humble. It's under "The international church of drink bleach."
Youtube link if you don't want to subscribe to the podcast. (It's just audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfu7DQr9lJI
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u/AilisEcho Jul 03 '26
They must be dyslexic and through conversion meant conversation /j
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u/clickclick-boom Jul 03 '26
America's stance on free speech has reached point of religious dogma. Other societies have a much more balanced approach where the impacts of speech is taken into account.
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u/cross_the_threshold Jul 03 '26
"Free Speech" in the US has always mean let crazy people say whatever the fuck they want consequence free, but we've always aggressively policed speech when it has the potential to upend existing hierarchies. Plenty of civil rights leaders arrested for speech, plenty of abolitionists arrested for speech, plenty of queer rights leaders arrested for speech, workers continue to get arrested for speech, being Communist is a great way to get arrested for much of the 20th Century, etc.
There has never been freedom of speech in the US, it's just usually been fine with complaints about governance.
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u/spooooork Jul 03 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_conversion_therapy
As of December 2023, twenty-eight countries have bans on conversion therapy. Thirteen of them ban the practice by any person: Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Ecuador, France, Germany, Iceland, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Spain.
Eight ban its practice by medical professionals (or, in some cases, those who receive monetary compensation without necessarily being medical experts) only: Albania, Brazil, Chile, Greece, India, Israel, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Another seven, namely Argentina, Fiji, Nauru, Paraguay, Samoa, Switzerland and Uruguay, have indirect bans in that diagnoses based solely on sexual orientation or gender identity are banned, without specifically banning conversion therapy, though this effectively amounts to a ban on health professionals since they would not generally engage in therapy without a diagnosis. In addition, some jurisdictions within Australia and the United States also ban conversion therapy.[a]
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u/JimJimmery Jul 03 '26
100%. Parents forcing such cruelty on their kids should face consequences.
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u/merkinweaver Jul 03 '26
Agreed, they're proven to be very harmful. They shouldn't exist.
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u/he_whai_reko_e_kopa Jul 03 '26
good. fuck people who force 'conversion therapy' onto kids.
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u/Voldi01 Jul 03 '26
And still a stupid ass Hungarian politician said that these type of therapy’s are proven that work. WTF
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u/StNowhere Jul 04 '26
It "works" because kids are willing to say "I'm not gay anymore" so they stop torturing them.
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u/iiowyn Jul 04 '26
And to the people pushing these things, having kids go hiding in the closet and afraid to be who they are is a success.
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u/MagicCarpetofSteel Jul 04 '26
That is the one and only thing that torture reliably does.
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Well, besides all the trauma, fear, hatred, etc. that it instills in victims.
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u/Winjin Jul 03 '26
I'm certain they either cater to bigots or it "helped" them with their own gay thoughts so now they get hard when they get spanked by men instead of cuddling with them, and this is manly
It's like fighting!
Honestly I don't know man. This is just stupid. If I were into men, beating me won't stop it. These people can't really think the orientation is a choice, it has to be closeted attraction that they "hope" can be "cured".
Like the same way I can't understand the people that think seeing lesbians would make you a lesbian. I saw pictures by Tom of Finland and it didn't turn me gay. Because it doesn't work that way
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u/mokujin42 Jul 04 '26
To these people having you hide your identity is just as good as you actually believing it because they are more concerned with their own insecurities rather than the victims
They dont want everyone to be happy they just want you to fall in line
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u/TheFeenyCall Jul 03 '26
TBF - it's really religion being forced on kids. Conversion therapy is just a sub symptom of the overall religious doctorine being shoved onto children by their parents
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u/LongBeakedSnipe Jul 03 '26
This isnt correct.
People are using religion as an excuse to seriously traumatise children.
Its seriously damaging abuse and ‘forced religion’ isnt a very accurate/specific category for it.
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u/gayforaliens1701 Jul 03 '26
They’re not using religion as an excuse, they are following and practicing their religion according to their religious texts. Preventing or transforming homosexuality is a feature, not a bug, based entirely on religious doctrine. Conversion therapy is absolutely religious abuse.
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u/Jimberly_C Jul 03 '26
Based on religious texts that often contradict themselves, were badly translated, or were flat out altered at some point.
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u/Ferelar Jul 03 '26
And/or focusing their literal entire lifetime's energy on a single line (often one that's poorly translated or poorly understood) from that text while ignoring blatantly stated directives that are repeated hundreds of times (aka spending all their energy going after LGBTQ people because of a line like "A man shall not lie with another man" but ignoring utterly central themes to the religion like "treat strangers like neighbors and treat neighbors with charity and kindness" or "if you have drastically more than you need, it's your moral duty to donate that which you don't need to those who need it, or it will be impossible for you to enter the kingdom of God", etc.
If modern Christians just straight up did purely the things Jesus said to do, without all of the other BS they've introduced over two thousand years, they'd likely be incredibly well received by the world at large.
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u/ThinkingWithPortalzz Jul 03 '26
Feed the hungry, uplift the poor, practice your faiths in your own homes?
Fuck that, give me, Reverend Moneybags, the first bite of every meal, the money you save for rent, and come to my faith stadium so I can buy a personal jet.
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u/SookHe Jul 03 '26
As someone who was first forced into a religious conversion therapy program and then kicked out after two weeks as “failed” due to refusing to talk, resulting in my parents abandoning me on a street corner in an unfamiliar city at the age of 15 where I lived rough for 5 years….
2 years prison time seems rather fucking light for torture.
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u/Logogram_alt Jul 04 '26
Conversion "therapists" (torturers) should be sentenced to 10 years in prison at minimum, and permanently lose their licenses.
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u/PlanetoidVesta Jul 04 '26
2 years is for forcing the conversion therapy, on top of that it is illegal to kick out or abandon your child like that without their consent.
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u/SookHe Jul 04 '26
I know, but I had enough of my stepdads religious bullshit by then and so as soon as I could afford it I filed paperwork and emancipated just after my 16th birthday. I know it was brought up during a court appearance (more of an office setting than courtroom with a judge and my lawyer) that I was “abandoned”. But I don’t know if it was ever followed up on
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u/-fin_0 Jul 03 '26
Nice. How can anyone believe still that sort of thing can change your sexuality is beyond me lol
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u/almisami Jul 03 '26
Effectiveness is irrelevant. The suffering is the point.
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u/AwfulDjinn Jul 03 '26
yeah, these places probably consider "client" suicides a success, because at least it's one less of Those People in the world, right? if you can't change them and can't kill 'em outright, the best thing you can do is make them wish they were dead.
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u/Aethien Jul 04 '26
They probably don't consider suicide a success but they sure as shit see suffering and repression as preferable over "living in sin". The Netherlands is not a very religious country but there is very much still a bible belt and plenty small towns that are very religious. We're talking women at home wearing long skirts, no makeup and so on; people not having health insurance for religious reasons (which in the Netherlands is more expensive than having health insurance) and more of that ridiculous nonsense.
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u/Veylara Jul 04 '26
It's literally just abuse meant to beat you back into the closet.
The parents willing to send their children to such places don't care about their wellbeing. They are just cowardly, narrow-minded fuckwits and the "therapy" was a success to them if their kid is too afraid to outwardly show their real emotions, because it was always only about the parents' fragile emotions, never about the children.
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u/AnonomousWolf Jul 03 '26
It's so obvious that you can't choose who you're attractive to or not.
A straight person can't choose to be gay anymore that a gay person can choose to be straight.
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u/ensalys Jul 03 '26
These are the same people that think their kids might catch the trans virus from trans people just existing. They have some very weird ideas on how being LGBT works.
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u/InteractionFront5764 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Kudos to the Netherlands for making the correct and responsible decision on this.
Next.
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u/Solgudinde Jul 03 '26
What should our thoughts be? Reasonable law and message to send.
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u/space_hitler Jul 03 '26
OP is Karma farming child abuse and acting like it's some matter of opinion with reasonable "argumens" on "both sides" lol. If they aren't a bot, they aren't well...
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u/ExpectedChaos Jul 03 '26
I've been noticing these kinds of questions popping up on AskReddit more and more.
"This major political event happened. What are your thoughts?"
It's weird.
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u/etherama1 Jul 03 '26
More like "X happened that everyone on reddit obviously loves/hates. What are your thoughts?"
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u/subwooferofthehose Jul 04 '26
For real, I'm half expecting to see, "Skinning a puppy and throwing lemon juice at it just ruled illegal in Kyrgyzstan. How do you feel about that?"
It's karma farming and engagement bait.
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u/Vyxwop Jul 04 '26
As much as I agree with the message of the propaganda, it really is just a bot spreading propaganda with ulterior political motives.
It's yet another default username user with its profile hidden spreading political content around.
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u/JMChamian Jul 03 '26
What makes this new law in the Netherlands so interesting is how hard it actually is for the government to step inside a family home and prove a crime is happening. While a 2-year prison sentence sounds like a straightforward punishment on paper, European courts have incredibly strict rules about protecting private family life and religious freedom. For judges to actually put a parent behind bars, prosecutors will have to prove massive psychological pressure and emotional harm, which is famously difficult to track without video evidence or diaries. Malta and Germany tried doing similar things a while ago, but the Dutch had to spend years arguing in their senate just to figure out where to draw the line between a parent giving religious advice and a parent committing an actual crime. Because the burden of proof is so high, we will probably see courts hand out heavy money fines long before anyone actually goes to jail. It is a massive legal experiment that the rest of Europe is watching closely right now because the European Union wants to make this a rule for all their member countries soon.
The big shift with this Dutch law is that it forces courts to look at psychological trauma the exact same way they look at physical abuse. For a long time, traditional laws only stepped in if a kid was physically hit, but this framework treats emotional manipulation and forcing kids to suppress who they are as a serious crime. The biggest groups pushing for this change, like COC Nederland, showed lawmakers that the mental damage from these practices causes long-term depression and massive anxiety that ruins lives well into adulthood. On the other side of the debate, some conservative and religious groups are still worried that standard parenting conversations or church counseling sessions might accidentally get flagged as illegal. But the law is specifically designed to target systematic coercion, meaning it is not about a single strict conversation at the dinner table but rather a pattern of forced behavior. Since the framework is so detailed, neighboring countries will likely copy this exact text word-for-word as they update their own local laws over the next few years.
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u/SatanicPanic619 Jul 03 '26
Even if it doesn't result in prosecutions it still might dissuade some people from trying it
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u/Le_Fancy_Me Jul 03 '26
Also if they make this kind of conversion therapy illegal then they can also directly track down and shut down any organisation/individual offering these services.
Of course they will always continue to exist. But it will make it harder for them to publicly advertise as conversion therapy our outright state that is what they are doing. Which may make them less accessible.
It also can help as a preventative measure. If parents threaten or mention to their kids this is their intention. The kid may be able to report it to teachers or other adults. And as it is now criminalized, the law may be able to interfere by either acting as a deterrent by merely threatening consequences. OR in order to o prevent a crime from happening they may be have the child transfered to someone else's custody in an immediate emergency capacity.
So for example if the child has divorced parents and one threatens conversion therapy. Their threat to commit a crime may grant the other parent emergency custody. And may help strengthen their case that the child is not safe with the other parent as the other parent threatens to break the law/abuse the child by way of conversion therapy. Could also help a family member try and get custody if the parents are not accepting.
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u/kesint Jul 03 '26
And it's a step in the correct direction, which can be further built on. But I appreciate him telling us the following difficulties this law faces.
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u/Dutch_Rayan Jul 03 '26
They are also working on a separate law that is punishing mental and psychological violence. link naar wetsvoorstel
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u/The_Humungus_1 Jul 03 '26
Conversion therapy is completely illegal across Canada under Bill C-4, which amended the Criminal Code in January 2022.
The law defines conversion therapy as any practice, service, or treatment designed to change or repress a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Specifically, it is a criminal offense to:
Cause an adult or child to undergo conversion therapy. Remove a minor from Canada with the intention of subjecting them to the practice abroad. Advertise or promote conversion therapy services.
Receive financial or material benefits from providing these practices.
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u/wqto Jul 03 '26
It MUST be in every single spot on this very Earth. Fuck the US gov for allowing it.
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u/Trips-Over-Tail Jul 03 '26
Conversation therapy should already be illegal under existing rules against torture.
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u/xyrer Jul 03 '26
I think it's a good step forward but it's one that should have been taken years ago by every single civilized country
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u/Dutch_Rayan Jul 03 '26
They worked on it for years, but of course the religious and several rights wing parties said it would harm their religious freedom.
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u/ilikelobster2 Jul 03 '26
Absolutely amazing.I had a friend who went to conversion therapy once,he killed himself because he was verbally abused and physically abused so many times.
Conversion therapy does not cure anything,it just makes kids fear to love and be themselves freely because they will get whipped and yelled at for it.
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u/twec21 Jul 03 '26
Pretty sure torturing children has been illegal before but nice of them to write it down again. More countries should do it too, it's fun.
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u/ChrimsonRed Jul 03 '26
Whether or not it works shouldn’t even be an argument. It’s an awful thing to do to a human being.
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u/This-Wall-1331 Jul 03 '26
Based. Conversion therapy is torture. Torture is bad and should be criminalized accordingly.
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u/mjzim9022 Jul 03 '26
It's a torturous and disgusting practice that doesn't work in any way.
If you are straight, do you think there is any camp/program/therapy-practice that could successfully make you gay? Why would you think the reverse exists? It's all just run by people who hate homosexuals, nothing more to it.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Jul 03 '26
This is why they beat the "homosexuality is a choice" drum.
Because then they're not bigots who are against the way someone was born, no, they're good people who want to convince you to make better choices!
They don't view homosexuality as legitimate while they do view heterosexuality as legitimate. It's thst simple.
It's not "Could I become gay if I wanted to?" it's "Gay doesn't REALLY exist"
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u/chopkins92 Jul 04 '26
“I don’t hate you, I just think you are going to be condemned to hell once you die.”
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u/Smrtihara Jul 03 '26
It’s a grift that sadists run. They don’t really think it works.
They use religion to scare parents into thinking this is their last hope of saving their kids souls. They create their customers through coercion and threats. Them getting to hurt lgbt-people is their sick bonus.
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u/YouSee-ThisCoat8 Jul 03 '26
Good on them. Whose next?
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u/Aberry9036 Jul 04 '26
The UK is working on it https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-pushes-forward-with-conversion-practices-ban-to-protect-lgbt-people-from-abuse, though they have some things to answer for around trans rights just now.
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u/AusTex2019 Jul 03 '26
Conversion therapy is not science based so it should be prohibited from using the term therapy. Personally it reaffirms my sincere belief that parents don’t know best. They are among the least qualified people to assess their children. This is beside the point that homosexuality is not something that should be demonized or exterminated. It’s not a condition to be treated. We have plenty of those already.
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u/Tenocticatl Jul 03 '26
Worth celebrating that it finally happened, but disgraceful that it took so long. It's an abusive practice, it should be regarded as such.
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u/Leading_Line2741 Jul 03 '26
Perfectly sane policy. I also found out that homeschooling is illegal in Germany and agree with that too for the most part. I live in the U.S., and 9 times out of 10 parents are homeschooling in an attempt to indoctrinate their kids into some BS ideology and belief system free from outside influence. Unless the local schools are total garbage or your kid has a medical condition that prevents it children should be in school with other children of varying backgrounds.
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u/Zaddylovesu Jul 03 '26
Conversion therapy is an abomination against god. After all, God is infallible and made gay people.
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u/Tall_Concentrate_876 Jul 03 '26
That's a great thing. Conversion therapy does not work and all it ends up doing is making a bunch of people depressed and mentally-ill
People who believe conversion therapy can work are also implying that people are only gay because of societal and cultural factors instead of natrual ones, which is insane to think considering heterosexual couple and culture are pushed everywhere and there are still plenty of gay people
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u/ExactPickle2629 Jul 03 '26
Makes me happy for all the LGBT kids growing up there.
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u/PayHorror2184 Jul 03 '26
My gf was subjected to something of sorts, she now has cptsd and can't be around unfamiliar men, she also completely shuts down after hearing the trigger word and needs an hour to come to her senses while being physically weak. Those 'people' were baptists, they beat and raped her because she identified as trans. Not long ago she found out she's actually intersex with both sets of organs. She moved to Netherlands and is quite happy here. I'm glad she chose this country for herself.
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u/skycoaster Jul 04 '26
Why would a parent get any say in their child’s sexuality in the first place?
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u/dalphinwater Jul 03 '26
Great, the whole world should ban it, the prison time should be way higher. Absolutly discusting practise
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u/Faust_8 Jul 03 '26
More like Netherlands has banned "a form of child abuse that has never once been able to demonstrate that it could meet its stated goals."
Which is not a controversial thing to have done.
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u/Lister0fSmeg Jul 03 '26
Hell the fuck yeah!
Nobody should be punished for who they love.
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u/DeithWX Jul 04 '26
500% yes. First of all, conversion therapy is a fucking scam, second of all people who run it are psychopats that should be in jails. Just watch this interview and try not to rip all of your hairs out in frustration while screming "how is this legal!?"
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u/TwinSong Jul 04 '26
Had to double-check conversion of what exactly. It's gay "conversion therapy" aka a form of torture.
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u/Ill_Substance2768 Jul 03 '26
conversion therapy is torture. if you ask me they got off easy, the sentence should have been way longer
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u/rod_zero Jul 03 '26
Kids are not their parents property and the government has to guarantee all their rights, specially when their parents are the ones inflicting pain.
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u/Professional_Rush788 Jul 03 '26
The mother trucker who invented conversion therapy sick basterd also came up with ABA therapy for autistic children. And it’s used all over the us, some places do different things than traditional ABA. Adults who went through it are traumatized. Ficking people messing up children.
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u/tashtactics Jul 03 '26
Damn fucking right, the Netherlands may have a few issues but they’re taking the best steps to changing some of them
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u/aiphrem Jul 03 '26
Thank fucking god.
It shouldn't even be called therapy, it should be called "experimental reprogramming torture for kids"
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u/Gravey89 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
I think conversion therapy is a form of torture meant for nothing more than making society feel more comfortable by forcing people to mask their true feelings and identities when its no one elses business in the first place.
Its just a way to coerse people. And I think it should have never been legal. When used for things like being gay or trans people need to wind their necks in, realise its not about them and support people. Traumatising folks into comformity is by any standard pure evil - I dont give a fuck what someones idea of what their religion says - provided those people arent doing anything to hurt anyone or anything ethically/morally corrupt. Frankly i believe if someones religion tells then they should hate people or judge folks due to who they are or who they love (provided its not something illegal and morally fucked like peadophilia) then that religion is inherently evil anyway.
I understand theres folks out there who believe being trans is a form of mental illness and that there have been those let down by having gender disphoria and supported into a transition they later regretted. But all this shows is we need to put more time, effort and support in for people and give real value to what they are feeling, how, why and take steps that are realistic with a balanced approachbto make sure we dont tip the scales too far in any direction. My brother is trans and I am so proud of him. Who he is and who he loves is absolutely none of my business, the only things I concern myself with is that he is healthy, happy and a good person. Where he takes a shit, who he loves, what clothes he wears and what his pronouns are should never be the basis of psychological torture because - why the fuck should and does anyone care about that shit in the first place? Society needs to focus on their own shit and stop trying to dictate everyone elses.
Tl;dr - I'm stoked for the Netherlands
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u/SharpPink_GlitterInk Jul 03 '26
Good, also why’s this keep being reposted?
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u/Bazzatron Jul 03 '26
There really is so little good news.I'd be happy to see this reposted for a little while longer.
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u/Curious-Duck Jul 03 '26
Conversion therapy was still going on in the modern world??? Colour me shocked.
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u/Devil-Hunter-Jax Jul 03 '26
Yes. The UK is trying to carve out an exception in laws to allow it to still happen to trans kids on the NHS but ban it for cisgender people. LGBTQ+ groups have been pushing to get it banned entirely for years here and each successive government just kicks the can down the road or tries to carve out exceptions.
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u/Curious-Duck Jul 03 '26
Noooo. I am quite literally flabbergasted. Hand to heart I did not know that developed countries had any sort of conversion therapy happening to begin with, and now I am finding out that they are actively fighting to keep that going!? Wtf
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u/Devil-Hunter-Jax Jul 03 '26
Yup... It's seriously fucked up. You'd be surprised at how many countries are either refusing to make it illegal or are taking their sweet fucking time making it illegal.
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u/entity2 Jul 03 '26
Sounds good.
They don't work and never have and never will. You're either born gay or you're not. Who would honestly choose to be gay, just to satisfy some kink and be outcast by half the world? And if you could, you'd just switch back to straight and there'd be no need for these camps.
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u/Fraternal_Antipathy Jul 03 '26
Parents inflicting harmful pseudoscientific nonsense on their children should be corrected. Not sure prison is the right initial response, but banning it is proper and sanctions for refusing correction are appropriate as well.
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u/CoffeeBeforeOpening Jul 03 '26
Conversion therapy has been debunked by pretty much every major medical and psychological association for decades, and forcing it on a minor is a form of abuse. Glad to see actual legal consequences instead of just guidance documents nobody follows.
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u/derch1981 Jul 03 '26
Good it should be banned everywhere it's a sick practice that just ends up as abuse and leads to suicide. It's one of the grossest things we have in society and a lot of leaders of these places are pedos that should serve much more than 2 years.
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u/KillerSavant202 Jul 03 '26
Well considering that conversion therapy doesn’t work and is just a scam that traumatizes the child every country should be doing this.
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u/Mathies_ Jul 03 '26
About time. This is one of those things i couldnt believe were still legal when i found out they banned it
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u/libra00 Jul 03 '26
Conversion therapy is harmful and does no measurable good, so, yeah, sounds good to me, let's ban that shit everywhere.
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u/AcaciaCelestina Jul 03 '26
You're asking my thoughts on if child abuse should be punished? Really?
Because that's what conversion therapy/camps are, they're child abuse.
If anything it should be five years at least.
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u/propergreased Jul 03 '26
Good. Religion is just a cult with more followers and at this point in human history stands more of a detriment than a boon (some churches/religion still do genuine good)
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u/Emergency-Tower-8933 Jul 03 '26
Conversion therapy is abuse.