The first problem is people shaming people with conditions they can't control. The second, unrelated, problem is how to act on the effects of the condition.
For example:
Someone feels a strong desire to cut off their own limb[1]. They are told by important people in their lives that is shameful, they can internalize that shame. Conversion therapy reinforces these feelings, etc. leading to increased anxiety, suicide, etc.
This is how I perceive you have framed the issue.
If you decouple the two problems you can solve them one at a time.
Firstly, you need to solve the problem of people emotionally abusing those with conditions they can't control. Secondly you need to solve the problem of how to deal with the effects of the condition.
Now the narrative goes like this:
Someone feels a strong desire to cut off their own limb[1]. They are told by important people in their lives that things like this happen, and not to feel bad for something beyond their control, and that they are there to support them. The person with BIID now has a choice - they can act on their condition and get the limb amputated, or they can attempt therapy to try to mitigate the effects of the condition.
This same logic can and should be applied to any mental condition from pedophilia to BIID to gender dysphoria.
Therapy should be available to adults for any unwanted mental condition, even LGBT-related ones.
No one here is saying LGBT individuals shouldn't have access to therapy. After all, said individuals can be uncomfortable with their sexuality or otherwise feel like they have to hide who they are.
Conversion Therapy however, is not actually therapy by any stretch of the word. It's a wolf in sheep's clothing, a way of harassing, harming or attacking vulnerable individuals. This is why conversion therapy increases the rate of suicide in individuals and why so many conversion therapy clinics use abhorrent means of attempting to treat people. In this case the argument is correctly framed.
Yes, conversion therapy is composed of people. But so are governments, businesses, societies and everything else. Your argument would essentially argue that nothing can actually be harmful because it's due to the people behind the concept, not the concept itself.
We can measure things by the harm that they cause as a whole, and as a whole conversion therapy is harmful. Unless you would like to dispute the factual harms it had and does cause.
No, it's not like that. The decision to go through "Conversion Therapy" under pressure is like a manifestation of harm already done to a person, it's not necessarily harmful in itself. As I said in another comment, it's possibly even a way out of anxiety to go back to pretending.
The first problem is people shaming people with conditions they can't control. The second, unrelated, problem is how to act on the effects of the condition.
For example:
Someone feels a strong desire to cut off their own limb[1]. They are told by important people in their lives that is shameful, they can internalize that shame. Conversion therapy reinforces these feelings, etc. leading to increased anxiety, suicide, etc.
This is how I perceive you have framed the issue.
If you decouple the two problems you can solve them one at a time.
Firstly, you need to solve the problem of people emotionally abusing those with conditions they can't control. Secondly you need to solve the problem of how to deal with the effects of the condition.
Now the narrative goes like this:
Someone feels a strong desire to cut off their own limb[1]. They are told by important people in their lives that things like this happen, and not to feel bad for something beyond their control, and that they are there to support them. The person with BIID now has a choice - they can act on their condition and get the limb amputated, or they can attempt therapy to try to mitigate the effects of the condition.
This same logic can and should be applied to any mental condition from pedophilia to BIID to gender dysphoria.
Therapy should be available to adults for any unwanted mental condition, even LGBT-related ones.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19132621