“Building a Person”: Legal and Clinical Personhood for Autistic and Trans Children in Ontario
Pyne (2020)
Content Warning: Applied Behavioural Analysis, Conversion Therapy, Child Abuse, Ableism
Two behaviour modification programmes were in operation in the 1960s and 70s at the University of California, Los Angeles. The first aimed to eliminate feminine behaviours in male-bodied children, then other aimed to remove so-called problem behaviours from Autistic children. One would become conversion therapy, the other Applied Behavioural Analysis or ABA). This article explores the trajectory of conversion therapy and ABA and how they intertwine in the context of Ontario, Canada. Through exploring legislation, case law, media and clinical literature, the author argues that in order to bring legislation stopping conversion therapy for the LGBT community a discursive shift was needed on the ontological construct of being a human. The concept that ABA builds a person from a shell has been a core principle since the early stages of research. The author argues that whilst the concept of being human is now awarded to queer teenagers it is not given to Autistic teenager and notably Autistic queer teenagers.
