It’s the first day back from the Christmas holidays. Your 12-year-old son comes down the stairs, ready for school. You take a second look. He’s in a skirt, heels, and lipstick.
Do you have a right to ask him to change?
Under new proposals in Scotland, you could face criminal penalties if you ask him to do so repeatedly – on “at least two occasions.”
Perhaps your son, in retaliation against your repeatedly expressed concerns, reports you to local authorities. He feels “distressed,” he says, because you are being “controlling,” or “pressuring” him to “act in a certain way.”
According to the draft “conversion therapy ban” opened to public consultation this week, you’ve now met the threshold – you’re accused of adopting a “coercive course of behaviour in the context of conversion practices.”
Your crime carries a potential penalty of up to seven years imprisonment; or an unlimited fine; or both.
As if parenting Gen Alpha wasn’t challenging enough.
Since the early public introduction of the concept, bans on “conversion therapy” have undergone a radical evolution at the hands of politicians and activists. Once explained as a necessary protection from electro-shock chairs and other abuses, activists have now expanded the concept dramatically to one that is far more opaque. Physical abuse has long been illegal, and obviously, rightly so. But now, as evidenced by the proposed new law, a ban on “conversion therapy” seeks to restrict something even more far-reaching – the act of basic parenting.
The law would allow social workers and state authorities to interfere in the relationship between parent and child in an unprecedented way. This follows an ideological pattern of Scotland’s famously “woke” government set long in the tooth. Citizens will remember the attempt throughout the 2010s to assign every child in Scotland a “named person” – a personal government official with access to private information, set to swoop in as a substitute parent. The overreaching scheme was brought down in court. But it’s clear that in Scotland, “mother” (or father) is far from trusted to know best.
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – JANUARY 10: Emma Roddick, Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees, leads a debate in the Scottish Parliament on The Impact of UK Government Asylum Policy and Legislation in Scotland. (Photo by Ken Jack/Getty Images)
Certainly, we need social care systems in place to rescue children from truly abusive situations. But the ability of a parent to advise, raise concerns, persuade, teach, and discipline a child is paramount in raising the next generation. Instead of being supported to play their role well, parents are placed under a terrifying, and well-founded, fear of losing their children or being locked up in prison, all the while navigating the extreme sensitivities of a child who may be struggling with a wide range of issues. The number of kids now identifying as “trans” is skyrocketing – especially amongst girls, and kids with autism. Any evidence they’ll be better off with an alter-ego gender is, at best, supremely contested. And the potential damage they can inflict upon their bodies in the process is severe.
Aren’t those who push kids down a path of such significant transition the ones truly guilty of practicing “conversion therapy”?
Confusion abounds. Fear mounts. Scotland could well be fast becoming the hardest place to raise a family in the West.
And what of the kids? As parents self-censor to avoid banishment, a generation is raised having never heard the word “no.” If there is no real discussion, objection, or concern raised to decisions they make at home, how will they possibly cope in the world at large, where a diverse and tolerant society requires that they hear other views than their own?
Children are not adults. Who knows where we’d all be today if we’d been empowered too early to make life-changing decisions?
And parents are not children. The vast majority are committed to doing the job of raising their children well. Many hold firm, science-based beliefs in the immutability of biological sex. Many have committed to steer their child away from an ideological path potentially leading to severe bodily harm and permanent, life-altering decisions.
Common sense is not a crime. Mums and dads might not be perfect, but the state is a terrible parent.
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Lois McLatchie Miller is a Scottish commentator and spokesperson for Alliance Defending Freedom UK. Follow her: @LoisMcLatch
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.