Victory for Talk Therapy – And Children – In Virginia

Last week, a Virginia court ordered the state to cease enforcing a law that prohibited, among other things, licensed counselors from using talk therapy to treat minors suffering from gender distress.

The order, issued as part of a consent decree between counselors John and Janet Raymond and the Virginia Department of Health Professions, stated that the law violated the plaintiff’s religious rights under the Virginia constitution; Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares signed the decree.

This is a massive win for therapists seeking to treat children suffering from gender distress without simply “affirming” their self-professed gender identity – and, of course, a massive win for Virginia children. 

Bans on talk therapy to treat gender dysphoria harm children and reinforce the so-called “affirmation” approach to pediatric gender medicine. 

Contrary to the claims of activists, talk therapy is not “conversion therapy,” and therapy related to so-called “gender identity” should not be conflated with attempts to change a patient’s sexual orientation.

Rather, the idea that talk therapy to treat gender dysphoria in minors is tantamount to “conversion therapy” implicitly assumes that a child’s self-professed “gender identity” is correct and must be affirmed. Under this assumption, attempts to treat gender dysphoria without simply affirming this belief are “converting” the child from their true self.

This notion in itself is dangerous, as it forces children onto the medicalization pathway and leads to harmful medical interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures.

Additionally, children experiencing gender dysphoria often have concurrent or underlying mental health conditions that deserve treatment.

Allowing children suffering from gender distress to receive non-invasive treatment is essential to ensure their mental well-being and to protect them from the harms of child sex change interventions. 

Gender dysphoria is very real, and forcing children experiencing it to undergo so-called “gender-affirming care” as the only means of medical “treatment” is cruel and unscientific.

Do No Harm applauds Attorney General Miyares and the Youngkin administration for acknowledging the law’s harms and agreeing not to enforce it.