"It's Not Therapy, It's Abuse"

20 January 2023

2 mins 44s

It's a sin.

Directors Zhang + Knight deliver a masterclass in psychological horror with this ad for Ban Conversion Therapy Now. The protagonist is a trans woman whose family still calls her Daniel, confident that she will be 'cured' through psychiatry and religious intervention. All she needs to do is sign on the dotted line.

What follows is a disturbing and deliberate process of dehumanisation, with dialogue like "You're sick, but we can make it better" and "Does that look like a girl's body to you?" almost too cruel to stomach. Worse still is how staff swarm around the protagonist and perform an 'exorcism'.

She's then taken for a haircut by her dad, who tells the barber "not to hold back". As she runs a strand of hair through her fingers, we see traces of her blue nail varnish—something a good boy like Daniel would never touch.

The near-three-minute film is an ordeal from start to finish, though it's clear that the protagonist's torment has only just begun. A comprehensive ban on conversion therapy looks to spare others a similar fate, so long as overdue promises are kept.

UK

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