Peter Gajdics’ psychiatrist relied on a number of strategies to “cure” his patients of same-sex attraction. He prescribed Gajdics a cocktail of psychiatric drugs at dangerously high doses and directed him to bottle up his feces to sniff whenever he felt attracted to a man. The doctor believed that it was events from Gajdics’ childhood that explained his “homosexual tendencies.”

After hearing personal testimonies from Gajdics and other survivors, the Vancouver City Council passed a motion Wednesday to ban “conversion therapy,” the widely discredited practice intended to “cure” an LGBTQ individual’s sexual orientation through a range of methods, including religious rituals, behavioural modification, lobotomy and electroshock therapy. The unanimous City Council vote made Vancouver the first city in Canada to approve such a ban. Gajdics, now 53, was the driving force behind the new legislation.

In January 2017, Gajdics wrote an email to Vancouver’s City Council making his case for a ban against conversion therapy by introducing his new book, “The Inheritance of Shame,” offering to share his story with officials who would hear it.

“Conversion therapy is not therapy, it’s just torture, abuse, and people still need to be educated,” Gajdics said.

What does the new law say?

The motion, as brought to the city council by an advisory committee that advocates for LGBTQ-rights issues, originally proposed that business licenses be withheld from any practitioners and groups engaging in therapy to transform a minor’s “sexuality or gender identity into alignment with the heterosexual and cisgender majority.” Before Wednesday’s vote, Vancouver bylaws gave lawmakers power to deny a business license only after a council-wide vote.