Amelie Francisco
Conversion therapy is the harmful practice of attempting to turn an LGBT+ person straight or cisgender. People who go through this therapy, especially minors, deal with long term repercussions such as severe depression and anxiety. Many people have ended up ending their own lives after this ‘therapy’. It is common for religious or conservative families to force their gay kids into conversion therapy in an attempt to fix them. Instead of becoming straight many become suicidal. This practice does not work and it is torture for people who go through it but shockingly in most places, it is still legal.
Hundreds of thousands of kids in the US alone have been forced into conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is performed by both licensed medical professionals and spiritual leaders. Conversion therapy has been proven to be ineffective and extremely harmful by many national health care organizations but shockingly it is still completely legal in most of the US and the majority of the world including Canada. The American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder until 1973 when they took it off their manual of psychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, by then, the damage had already been done and people still believed and even now still believe that homosexuality is an illness and is something that can be cured.
Conversion therapy originated in the 20th century as doctors began labelling homosexuality as a mental illness. People began to study homosexuality and as they tried to figure out what caused it they also began looking for cures. Many LGBT+ people suffered through inhumane torture in order to ‘fix them’. Electroconvulsive therapy and even lobotomies were common practice in the field. Doctors electrocuted patients while subjecting them to gay pornography or prostitutes. Aversion therapy was also created in which patients were tortured when they experienced desire to the same sex in order to make them disgusted by it. Churches and religious people also began to practice talk therapy, which makes gay people severely hate themselves. They also used exorcisms as well as other methods. Gay conversion camps were created where gay youth were told that they were committing awful sins and that they needed to ‘pray the gay away’. Youth who go through these camps come out with a skewed perception of the world and were full of shame and regrets.
Conversion therapy is likely to cause PTSD, anxiety, and depression. There is no evidence that conversion therapy actually works and there are many legitimate studies that prove it causes significant harm to patients. The majority of the global LGBT+ population risks being subjected to conversion therapy because it is still widely practiced by both medical professionals and religious leaders.
Kids are driven to suicide because of conversion therapy. They are tortured emotionally and physically. They are brainwashed to hate themselves and sometimes they are physically tortured like a prisoner of war. These tactics are barbaric and don’t accomplish anything but yet every day all over the world kids are electrocuted, beaten, starved, and burned just in order to turn them straight.
So what can you do to help? The best thing that you can do right now is to combat homophobia as a whole because that is the root of the problem. Say something when you see homophobia, educate yourself about the issues that face LGBT+ people, support your LGBT+ friends. Even without conversion therapy LGBT+ youth deal with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and suicide within the community and standing up for your friends or the community in general can make a bigger difference than you realize. The casual homophobia and the toxic myths that surround being LGBT+ are all around us and if more people could open their eyes to it we would make the world a better place for everyone. I know it’s easy to dismiss casual homophobia as not a big deal but it’s the everyday homophobia that allows for conversion therapy to be practised and for governments to murder and imprison their gay citizens. It appalls me that even in 2019 homosexuality is still looked at as a crime equal to murder in some countries or even just a taboo topic in others. So please stand up when you see something wrong in the world, even doing something small can make a huge difference.
Below I’ve listed some links to petitions combating homophobia and conversion therapy. They are super easy to sign and actually can make a difference if enough people sign them.
End Gay Conversion Therapy In Canada
Petition to Ban Conversion Therapy in BC
Help LGBT Refugees Who Were Forced To Flee Iran to Escape Death
Support LGBT Rights in Kenya
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