Conversion therapy, according to The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, is “a pseudoscientific therapy given to an individual intended to alter same-sex attraction into heterosexual attraction using psychological, physical or spiritual interventions.” It is estimated that 698,000 members of the LGBTQ+ community have received some form of conversion therapy, with 350,000 having received it as a child or adolescent. The most common form of conversion therapy is talk therapy, where a patient is given “counseling” to attempt to “fix” their homosexual attraction. More physically extreme methods of conversion therapy include aversion treatments, such as inducing nausea or paralysis, providing electric shocks or having the individual snap an elastic band around the wrist when the individual thinks of same-sex images or thoughts. Proponents of conversion therapy intentionally use methodology associated with helping those suffering from real mental disorders to discuss same-sex attraction. They claim that they are helping clients who “struggle” with same-sex attraction or gender confusion. Disguising their methods as treatment, they hide the abuse that it actually is.
There is no evidence that the application of any form of conversion therapy is actually able to change an individual’s sexuality. Conversion therapy makes the incorrect assumption that same-sex attraction is a mental disorder or something that an individual needs to be “cured” of. If someone believes that their same-sex attraction has been cured after receiving conversion therapy, they are likely experiencing a trauma response and are only further repressing their same-sex attraction. Every major phycological group conclusively believes that conversion therapy is not only ineffective, but unethical.
The FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSE CONVERSION THERAPY:
American academy of pediatrics
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
american association for marriage and family therapy
american college of physicians
American medical association
american psychiatric association
american psychological association
american school health association
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Regional Office of the World Health Organization
world psychiatric association
Research does not conclude that conversion therapy is effective, but it does prove that it is incredible harmful to patients, especially children. Children whose parents attempted to change their sexual orientation are three times more likely to attempt suicide. If parents enlist the help of a professional (therapist, religious leader etc.) to change their child’s sexual orientation, that child is five times more likely to attempt suicide. They are six times more likely to report high levels of depression and three times more likely to use illegal drugs. They are at a much higher risk for HIV and AIDS. They are much more likely to experience homelessness. Being subjected to conversion therapy as a child will undoubtedly affect someone for the rest of their life.
The practice of conversion therapy is still alive and well in the United States. As of 2021, conversion therapy is completely banned in only 20 states. It is legal in some form in 32 states, 20 of which have no guidelines at all. In this map (above) from the Movement Advancement Project, the states colored green ban conversion therapy for minors and the striped green states ban it in some form. Most importantly, the tan states have no ban on conversion therapy, and the orange states have a ban placed on banning conversion therapy. The Williams Institute found that 81% of people subjected to conversion therapy received it from a religious leader, and 31% from a health care provider. Bans on conversion therapy in the U.S. only cover health care professionals and have little power to prevent religious organizations from harming LGBTQ+ youth.
media spotlight: stories of people who underwent conversion therapy:
“When Rodgers came out to her family as a junior in high school, she still believed that God would sanctify her and eventually make her straight. Wanting so intensely to be good, she spent her adolescent and early adult years with an ex-gay ministry, praying for liberation from her homosexuality.”
via Broadleaf Books, “Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story” by Julie Rodgers
“In 1993 after teenage Cameron is caught in the backseat of a car with the prom queen, she is sent away to a treatment centre in a remote area called God’s Promise. While she is being subjected to questionable gay conversion therapies, she bonds with some fellow residents as they pretend to go along with the process while waiting to be released.”
via Google, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” by Emily Danforth
(Adopted into a movie in 2018)
“Based on a true story, Jared Eamons, the son of a small-town Baptist pastor, must overcome the fallout after being outed as gay to his parents. His father and mother struggle to reconcile their love for their son with their beliefs. Fearing a loss of family, friends and community, Jared is pressured into attending a conversion therapy program. While there, Jared comes into conflict with its leader and begins his journey to finding his own voice and accepting his true self.”
via Google, “Boy Erased” (2018)
“‘The Inheritance of Shame’ details the six years author Peter Gajdics spent in a form of conversion therapy that attempted to “cure” him of his homosexuality. Kept with other patients in a cult-like home in British Columbia, Canada, Gajdics was under the authority of a dominating, rogue psychiatrist who controlled his patients, in part, by creating and exploiting a false sense of family.”
via inheritanceofshame.com, “The Inheritance of Shame: a Memoir” by Peter Gajdics
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER LEARNING:
American Civil Liberties Union: Missouri
“We Went to Gay Conversion Therapy Camp” – a three part series by VICE