WearWhite's Not So Successful Livestream

So there was a livestream event that didn't really happen earlier on in April. It was by WearWhite, a group not so friendly to the LGBT movement. I was invested in it to see what kind of things anti-LGBT Muslims would be willing to say in public. One may wish to note that while JAKIM (Malaysia's MUIS) is tagged in the post, MUIS was not. Instead, anti-MUIS pages like Reform MUIS and Fikrah Siyasah were tagged.

Conversion Therapy - History & Experience, An Islamic Perspective.

What was likely intended to be something that lasted an hour (or more) instead only culminated in an 11-minute video recording, half of which spent introducing the speakers (one of which didn't even manage to say anything for the remaining half). 

The video begins with the WearWhite co-founder (Noor Deros) mentioning his movement's inception to be a response to a few things. Namely, they are;

1. Growing normalization of LGBT in Singapore
2. Muslims being increasingly supportive of LGBTs and shouldn't be
3. The 2014's Pink Dot was the first night of Ramadan for that year

The WearWhite of that year (2014) called for Muslims to wear white instead of pink. To remind people to 'return to fitrah', the natural disposition (i.e. heterosexuality), and not to participate in Pink Dot. It is of their view that Muslims are supportive of LGBT "due to the lack of understanding and connection with Islam and our fitrah". 

They then defined conversion therapy to be defined broadly as any attempt to "change the sexual orientation of homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual and transgender to cisgender using physical, psychological or spiritual intervention." This definition was to include even any form of casual advice. They are also correct to say that generally, conversion therapy is not taken kindly by pro-LGBT movements, to the point of making governments to banning it, citing UK's recent developments in (context). 

After the introductions of speakers, the video started to answer the question on the history of conversion therapy. The second speaker, Prof Madya, went on with matter-of-fact statements about when and how conversion therapy has been conducted (primarily in the West). She did comment that it is the first time "conversion therapy has been discussed openly", something to note in light of (religious) conversion therapy being 'attacked' in Malaysia (maybe in reference to things like this). 

Before 1973 (before the APA declassified same-sex attraction as a mental illness), people visited professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers) to get treated for same-sex attraction. They could then go through procedures like lobotomies, cauterization of the spinal cord, compulsion electric shock (noted to still be used for present-day schizophrenic patients), or hormonal injection. Later on, procedures mentioned included cognitive therapy or aversive conditioning. (A more comprehensive list, in categories, for reference). The professor then mentions (a type of aversive conditioning) how in Malaysia there was never the practice of pairing homoerotic images with nausea and electric shocks, instead saying 'we have other methods of dealing with LGBT'.  

The video then abruptly ends after the brief history lesson.

Most of what was mentioned in the video was nothing new to me. The only part I was interested in was how they had intended to treat the 'LGBT problem' (i.e. their 'other methods' of dealing with LGBT'). Alas, the video didn't continue.

While the video makes no mention of how conversion therapy is currently done in Singapore and Malaysia, they are definitely practiced in the present day (more pervasive and damaging in Malaysia). Conversion therapy on one end can be as simple as constant casual 'advice', or as harmless as bathing in flower water or being made to wear particular clothes or engage in traditionally masculine/feminine activities. Most, if not all are religiously motivated. However, it can also be physical abuse from family members, of which include caning or even getting stabbed in the face (with the threat of death). We then even have (forced) arranged marriages, and Islamic exorcisms called Ruqyah. In Malaysia, authorities and prevailing sharia law criminalizes non-heterosexual behavior (individuals can get jailed and fined). Things are bad even in more secular Singapore that some people get admitted to the IMH after constant conversion efforts from parents. 

As much as anti-LGBT advocates can mention 'success stories' of people being able to 'return to fitrah', I'd wager there are many more (undocumented) stories of people with damaged selves, or have strained relationships with family and religious figures (notwithstanding religion). There are reasons why conversion therapy should at the very least, be a regulated practice, if not outright banned.