We are celebrating. Four years after the release of Peter Gajdics’ thought-provoking memoir, The Inheritance of Shame, the Canadian parliament voted this week to criminalize the practice known as “conversion therapy” nationwide.
The unanimous decision is a huge win for the LGBTQ+ community, and is particularly important to Peter — who lobbied hard to get the government to prohibit anti-gay programs, not just for minors, but for adults as well. In deciding to include adults in Bill C4, Canada has officially imposed the most comprehensive ban on “conversion therapy” in the world.
Peter was 24 when he voluntarily entered treatment with a rogue psychiatrist who had convinced him that his depression was linked to his sexual orientation. Peter languished under the doctor’s control for six years before finally breaking free, unburdening himself of the shame he’d lived with since early childhood, and embracing his truth — all of which he chronicled in his award-winning memoir.
Peter and his allies have spent the last two decades advocating in favor of banning anti-gay therapies at all levels of government. In 2018, a year after his book release, Peter helped initiate Canada's first municipal ban on “conversion therapy” in his home city of Vancouver, British Columbia. And then two years later, he testified before Canada's House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights about Bill C6 — a bill similar to the one that passed but that applied only to children. Although Peter supported C6, his main argument was that “conversion therapy” should be banned outright, for all.
No matter how old people are, they cannot change their sexual orientation, he told the committee. To attempt it is both outdated and inhumane.
Peter said the fact that Bill C4 passed unanimously, and within only two days of its first reading, made the news all the sweeter.
“Typically,” he said, “bills like this would also go through first and second reading, and maybe be referred to a subcommittee for review. That could take months. Not this time. Senate approved it unanimously. In other words, there was no objection from any party. All MPs approved, and all senators approved.”
Senate approval was on Wednesday, Dec. 8 — and now, as Peter put it, “it is now law across the land.”
We are so proud of Peter, and feel incredibly privileged to call him a friend.
“Honestly, I don’t for a moment think my book did all of this,” he said. “Lots and lots of people have worked for years. I would like to think, however, that I helped to make this happen. That would make me very happy.”
Amen to that.