While conversion therapy is now banned in Canada, a Canadian non-profit is working to help support and offer healing for survivors of the practice.
Ben Rodgers is the founder of , Canada's first and only federally incorporated not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping survivors of conversion therapy.
"We went from just simply starting with a little support group to now we're actually a federally recognized non-profit, and we're just going to keep building," Rodgers told CTV's Your Morning on Friday.
Conversion "therapy," as it has been called, seeks to change a person's sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender. It can include seeking to repress someone’s non-heterosexual attraction, or repressing a person’s gender expression or non-cis gender identity.
These practices can take various forms, including counselling and behavioural modification, and they have been opposed by numerous health and human rights groups. There continue to be calls for further mental health and educational supports for those who have survived conversion therapy.
"They basically present it as a fault or a fear or something that they can kind of lay in and kind of grab on to you with and they basically just expand on that and expand on your own personal fears," Rodgers said. "Your own self hatred is what they over develop and they make you hate yourself, and that's unfortunately one of the horrible premises of the practice."
Conversion therapy became illegal in Canada earlier this year, marking a major milestone in LGBTQ2S+ rights in this country.
After parliamentarians came together to unanimously pass legislation to eradicate the harmful practice in late 2021, the Criminal Code sanctions came into force on Jan. 7.
This means that anyone who looks to subject someone of any age, consenting or not, to so-called conversion therapy could face up to five years in prison.
As well, if someone is found to be promoting, advertising, or profiting from providing the practice, they could face up to two years in prison.
Despite the ban, Rodgers said the practice of conversion therapy still continues in certain areas of Canada, particularly in the transgender community.
"The unfortunate factor is even when I went through it, it wasn't called conversion therapy. It was more like it was a talk session," Rodgers said.
"They keep it as a hush, hush thing," he added.
However, now that the practice is illegal, Rodgers said he hopes his organization can help survivors move past the traumas they've experienced.
"With there now being a federal law, though, it gives the opportunity for survivors to be able to actually speak up for once, and that's something we never had before," he said.
CT Survivors Connect was recently awarded a grant from the Justice Department and is using part of the funding to create webinars for survivors.
In addition, the organization is hosting its first event in Kingston, Ont. on May 21 in the form of a drag and comedy show to honour those who have been lost to conversion therapy and in recognition of the survivors. The event will also see awards presented to advocates that have been fighting against conversion therapy practices in Canada.
"I hope that this is going to be one of many big events to help raise funds and get the supports and the services that are really needed by survivors," Rodgers said.
With files from CTVNews.ca’s Rachel Aiello
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