Thread by @justdad7

🇨🇦 Third reading debate on #Billc6 will continue sometime next week and there will be a final vote. The House approved the amendments from the Justice Committee without debate. The key section is the definition in Section 320.106 . /2

The amendments further confound an already confusing definition by adding a reference to gender expression which is not found in other conversion therapy bills or policies. The problem here is that there is no way to define a "cisgender" gender expression or identity in a way /3

that does not depend on shifting cultural stereotypes about dress, appearance and behavior. The definition also draws a binary distinction between cisgender and everything else which does not make sense even from the perspective of gender ideology. /4

The definition refers to a practice, service or treatment "designed" to change gender identity or sexual orientation. This could allow an out for non-affirming clinicians who argue that they are not seeking to change patients' gender identity but to /5

relieve their distress in the safest way possible. However, I don't know how many clinicians would risk a 5 year prison term based on that argument. The section contains an internal contradiction because it makes an exemption for exploration that does not favour a particular /6

gender identity but at the same time disfavours cisgender identity. The reference to "integrated personal identity" raises more questions than it answers. The concept of personal identity is extensively discussed in psychological literature but there are differing schools /7

of thought and there is no way to tell how judges and lawyers who are usually not trained in psychology will interpret this phrase. The result is that we are left with a law that will be extremely difficult to enforce through the courts but will still /8

do considerable damage by intimidating any clinician who attempts to challenge the now dominant affirming model for gender dysphoria. There will be very little noticeable change because the affirming model is already well entrenched in professional practice but the process of /9

achieving change through the normal academic and professional channels will become vastly more difficult.