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{{Short description|Pseudoscientific attempts to change sexual orientation or gender identity}}
{{Merge | Sexual orientation change efforts| discuss=Talk:Sexual orientation change efforts#Merge discussion| date=October 2009}}
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{{POV|date=September 2009}}
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'''Conversion therapy''', sometimes called '''reparative therapy''' or '''reorientation therapy''', is one type of ] that attempts to change the ] of person from ] or ] to ]<ref></ref>, which have been a source of intense political controversy in the United States and numerous other countries.<ref name="DrescherandZucker" /> The ] states that political and moral debates over the integration of gays and lesbians into the mainstream of American society have obscured scientific data about changing sexual orientation "by calling into question the motives and even the character of individuals on both sides of the issue."<ref name="Psych" /> The most high-profile contemporary advocates of conversion therapy tend to be ] groups and other religious organizations.<ref name="Yoshino">{{Harvnb|Yoshino|2002}}</ref> The main organization advocating secular forms of conversion therapy is the ] (NARTH).<ref name="Yoshino" /><ref name="Taskforce" />
{{Infobox pseudoscience
| claims = One's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression can be changed to fit ], ], and ] norms.
| notableprop = ]
}}
{{LGBT rights sidebar}}
{{Alternative medicine sidebar|fringe}}


'''Conversion therapy''' is the ]<!-- DO NOT remove or change to "scientific" without talk page consensus --> practice of attempting to change an individual's ], ], ], or ] to align with ] and ] norms.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fenaughty |first1=John |last2=Tan |first2=Kyle |last3=Ker |first3=Alex |last4=Veale |first4=Jaimie |last5=Saxton |first5=Peter |last6=Alansari |first6=Mohamed |date=January 2023 |title=Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts for Young People in New Zealand: Demographics, Types of Suggesters, and Associations with Mental Health |journal=Journal of Youth and Adolescence |language=en |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=149–164 |doi=10.1007/s10964-022-01693-3 |pmid=36301377 |pmc=9813061 |issn=0047-2891}}</ref> Methods that have been used to this end include forms of ], ] or ], ] treatments such as electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, ], counseling, spiritual interventions, visualization, ], and arousal reconditioning. There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and that it frequently causes significant long-term psychological harm.<ref name=":0" /> The position of current ] and clinical guidance is that ], ], and ] are natural and healthy aspects of ].<ref name=":0" />{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=5}} An increasing number of jurisdictions around the world have passed ].<ref name="Drescher" />
The ] defines conversion therapy as therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation.<ref name="Answers">{{citation |url=http://www.apa.org/topics/sorientation.pdf |title=Answers to Your Questions: For a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality |accessdate=2008-02-14 |year=2008 |month=February |publisher=American Psychological Association |format=PDF}}</ref> The American Psychiatric Association states that conversion therapy is a type of psychiatric treatment "based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change his/her sexual ] orientation."<ref name="Psych" /> Psychologist Douglas Haldeman writes that conversion therapy comprises efforts by ] professionals and ] providers to convert lesbians and gay men to heterosexuality, that techniques include ], ], aversive conditioning involving electric shock or nausea-inducing drugs, ], reparative therapy, and involvement in ex-gay ministries such as ], and that claims of its effectiveness are unsupported by empirical evidence.<ref name="GonsiorekandWeinrich">{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|pp=149-160}}</ref>


Historically, conversion therapy was the treatment of choice for individuals who disclosed same-sex attractions or exhibited gender nonconformity, which were formerly assumed to be ] by the medical establishment.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=5}} When performed today, conversion therapy may constitute ], and when performed on minors, a form of ]; it has been described by experts as ]; ]; and contrary to ].
Mainstream American medical and scientific organizations have expressed concern over conversion therapy and consider it potentially harmful.<ref name="Psych">{{citation |url=http://www.psych.org/Departments/EDU/Library/APAOfficialDocumentsandRelated/PositionStatements/200001a.aspx |title=Position Statement on Therapies Focused on Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation (Reparative or Conversion Therapies) |accessdate=2007-08-28 |year=2000 |month=May |publisher=] |format=PDF}}</ref><ref name="APA" /><ref name="NewAPA">{{citation |url=http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-response.pdf |format=pdf |title=Report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation |accessdate=2009-09-24 |first=JM |last=Glassgold | coauthors=et al. |publisher=] |date=2009-08-01 }}</ref> The advancement of conversion therapy may cause social harm by disseminating inaccurate views about sexual orientation.<ref name="APA" /> The ethics guidelines of major mental health organizations in the United States vary from cautionary statements about the safety, effectiveness, and dangers of prejudice associated with conversion therapy (American Psychological Association), to recommendations that ethical practitioners refrain from practicing conversion therapy (American Psychiatric Association) or from referring patients to those who do (]).<ref name="Psych" /><ref name="Answers" /><ref name="ACA News" />


==Terminology== ==Terminology ==
Medical professionals and activists consider "conversion therapy" a ], as it does not constitute a legitimate form of ].{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=4}} Alternative terms include sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE){{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=4}} and gender identity change efforts (GICE){{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=4}}—together, sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (SOGICE).<ref name="SOGICESurvivor">{{cite web | vauthors=Csabs C, Despott N, Morel B, Brodel A, Johnson R | url=http://socesurvivors.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Survivor-Statement-A4-Doc-v1-2-Digital.pdf | title=The SOGICE Survivor Statement | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405220718/https://socesurvivors.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Survivor-Statement-A4-Doc-v1-2-Digital.pdf | archive-date=2023-04-05 | date=July 2020 | url-status=dead}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2023}} According to researcher ], SOCE and GICE should be considered together because both rest on the assumption "that gender-related behavior consistent with the individual's birth sex is ] and anything else is unacceptable and should be changed".{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=8}} "Reparative therapy" may refer to conversion therapy in general,{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=4}} or to ].<ref name="Drescher1998"/>
The American Psychological Association in 2008 defined ''conversion therapy'' and ''reparative therapy'' as “therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation.“<ref name="Answers" /> The American Psychiatric Association considers ''conversion therapy'' and ''reparative therapy'' to be forms of "psychiatric treatment...based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation."<ref name="Psych" /> There is disagreement over which methods the term ''reparative therapy'' applies to and whether it should be used. ] states that the term implies that homosexuality is a disorder and should be avoided, a view also held by some psychologists and sociologists.<ref name="DrescherandZucker">{{Harvnb|Drescher|2006|pp=126, 175}}</ref><ref name="GLAAD" /> ] writes in ''Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man'' that properly speaking ''reparative therapy'' applies only to the approach developed by ] and ].<ref name="Drescher1998" /> ] in 2003 used ''reparative therapy'' to refer to "...any help from a mental health professional or an ex-gay ministry for the purpose of changing sexual orientation".<ref name="DrescherandZucker" />


Advocates of conversion therapy do not necessarily use the term either, instead using phrases such as "healing from sexual brokenness"<ref>{{cite journal |id={{Gale|A586241649}} |last1=Lee |first1=Jin |title=Diversity or a flavor of diversity? |journal=Gateway Journalism Review |date=1 January 2019 |volume=47 |issue=352 |pages=34–35 }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Stephens |first1=John Bryant |date=1997 |title=Conflicts over homosexuality in the United Methodist Church: Testing theories of conflict analysis and resolution |id={{ProQuest|304408101}} |oclc=41964052 }}</ref> and "struggling with same-sex attraction".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Creek |first1=S. J. |last2=Dunn |first2=Jennifer L. |title='Be Ye Transformed': The Sexual Storytelling of Ex-gay Participants |journal=Sociological Focus |date=2012 |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=306–319 |doi=10.1080/00380237.2012.712863 |jstor=41633922 |s2cid=144699323 }}</ref>
The Just the Facts Coalition, consisting of the ], ], ], ], ], American School Counselor Association, ], Interfaith Alliance Foundation, ], ], ], ], and the School Social Work Association of America, in 2008 released ''Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth''. This statement defines ''sexual orientation conversion therapy'' as “counseling and psychotherapy to attempt to eliminate individuals‘ sexual desire for members of their own sex”, and also defines ''sexual orientation conversion therapy'' and ''reparative therapy'' as “counselling and psychotherapy aimed at eliminating or suppressing homosexuality”.<ref name="APA" /> It distinguishes ''sexual orientation conversion therapy'' from ''ex-gay ministry'' and ''transformational ministry'', defining the latter as "religious groups that use religion to attempt to eliminate those desires."<ref name="APA" />

The American Psychological Association in 2009 released ''Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation'', which defines '']'' (SOCE) as "methods that aim to change a same-sex sexual orientation (e.g., behavioral techniques, psychoanalytic techniques, medical approaches, religious and spiritual approaches) to heterosexual, regardless of whether mental health professionals or lay individuals (including religious professionals, religious leaders, social groups, and other lay networks, such as self-help groups) are involved."<ref name="NewAPA" />


==History== ==History==
{{main|History of conversion therapy}}
===Overview===


=== Sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) ===
Legal scholar ] argues that the history of conversion therapy can be divided broadly into three phases: an early Freudian period, a period of mainstream approval of conversion therapy during a time when the mental health establishment became the "primary superintendent" of sexuality, and a post-Stonewall period wherein the mainstream medical profession disavowed conversion therapy.<ref name="Yoshino">{{Harvnb|Yoshino|2002}}</ref>
The term '']'' was coined by German-speaking Hungarian writer ] and was in circulation by the 1880s.{{sfn|Whisnant|2016|p=20}}<ref name=Drescher>{{cite journal |last1=Drescher |first1=Jack |last2=Schwartz |first2=Alan |last3=Casoy |first3=Flávio |last4=McIntosh |first4=Christopher A. |last5=Hurley |first5=Brian |last6=Ashley |first6=Kenneth |last7=Barber |first7=Mary |last8=Goldenberg |first8=David |last9=Herbert |first9=Sarah E. |last10=Lothwell |first10=Lorraine E. |last11=Mattson |first11=Marlin R. |last12=McAfee |first12=Scot G. |last13=Pula |first13=Jack |last14=Rosario |first14=Vernon |last15=Tompkins |first15=D. Andrew |title=The Growing Regulation of Conversion Therapy |journal=Journal of Medical Regulation |date=2016 |volume=102 |issue=2 |pages=7–12 |doi=10.30770/2572-1852-102.2.7 |pmid=27754500 |pmc=5040471 }}</ref> Into the middle of the twentieth century, competing views of homosexuality were advanced by ] versus academic ]. ], the founder of psychoanalysis, viewed homosexuality as a form of ]. Later psychoanalysts followed ], who argued that homosexuality was a "phobic avoidance of heterosexuality caused by inadequate early parenting".<ref name=Drescher/> This line of thinking was popular in psychiatric models of homosexuality based on the prison population or homosexuals seeking treatment. In contrast, sexology researchers such as ] argued that homosexuality was a normal variation in human development. In 1970, gay activists confronted the ], persuading the association to reconsider whether homosexuality should be listed as a disorder. The APA delisted homosexuality in 1973, which contributed to shifts in public opinion on homosexuality.<ref name=Drescher/>


Despite their lack of scientific backing, some ] or ] activists continued to argue that if one person's sexuality could be changed, homosexuality was not a fixed class such as ]. Borrowing from discredited psychoanalytic ideas about the cause of homosexuality, some of these individuals offered conversion therapy.<ref name=Drescher/> In 2001, conversion therapy attracted attention when ] published a non-] study asserting that some homosexuals could change their sexual orientation. Many researchers made ] criticisms of the study, which Spitzer later repudiated.<ref name=Drescher/>
During the earliest parts of psychoanalytic history, analysts granted that homosexuality was non-pathological in certain cases, and the ethical question of whether it ought to be changed was discussed. By the 1920s psychoanalysts assumed that homosexuality was pathological and that attempts to treat it were appropriate, although psychoanalytic opinion about changing homosexuality was largely pessimistic. Those forms of homosexuality that were considered perversions were usually held to be uncurable. Psychoanalysts‘ tolerant statements about homosexuality arose from recognition of the difficulty of achieving change. Beginning in the 1930s and continuing for roughly twenty years, major changes occurred in how psychoanalysts viewed homosexuality, which involved a shift in the rhetoric of psychoanalysts, some of whom felt free to ridicule and abuse their gay patients.<ref name="Lewes">{{Harvnb|Lewes|1988}}</ref>


=== Gender identity change efforts (GICE) ===
===Europe===
Gender Identity Change Efforts (GICE) refer to practices of healthcare providers and religious counselors with the goal of attempting to alter a person's gender identity or expression to conform to social norms. Examples include ], ], and ] and talk therapies.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=52}} Western medical-model narratives have historically institutionalized ]: systemically favoring a binary gender model and pathologizing gender diversity and non-conformity.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=53}} This aided the development and proliferation of GICE.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=56}}
====Sigmund Freud====
{{Main|Sigmund Freud's views about homosexuality}}
]


Early ] were rooted in psychoanalytic hypotheses.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=58}} ] advanced the theory that ] behavior and expression in children assigned male at birth (AMAB) was caused by being overly close to their mother. ] continued his research; his methods for altering behavior included having the father spend more time with the child and mother less, expecting both to exhibit stereotypical ], and having them praise their child's masculine behaviors, and shame their feminine and gender-nonconforming ones. These interventions resulted in depression in the children and feelings of betrayal from parents that the treatments failed.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=58}}
] was a physician and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud stated that homosexuality could sometimes be removed through hypnotic suggestion<ref name="SigmundFreudOnSexuality">{{Harvnb|Freud|1991|p=51}}</ref>, and was influenced by ], a ] endocrinologist who transplanted ]s from straight men into gay men in attempts to change their sexual orientation<ref>{{Harvnb|LeVay|1996|p=74,109}}</ref>, stating that his research had “thrown a strong light on the organic determinants of homo-eroticism”.<ref name="SigmundFreudOnSexualityP58">{{Harvnb|Freud|1991|p=58}}</ref> Freud cautioned that Steinach's operations would not necessarily make possible a therapy that could be generally applied, arguing that such transplant procedures would be effective in changing homosexuality in men only in cases in which it was strongly associated with physical characteristics typical of women, and that probably no similar therapy could be applied to lesbianism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Freud|1991|p=58-59}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Freud|1991|p=400}}</ref> In fact Steinach’s method was doomed to failure because the ] rejects transplanted glands, and was eventually exposed as ineffective and often harmful.<ref>{{Harvnb|LeVay|1996|p=32-33}}</ref>


In the 1970s, ] psychologist Richard Green recruited ] to adapt the techniques of ] (ABA) therapy to attempt to prevent children from becoming ].<ref name="silberman_2016_319">{{Cite book |last1=Silberman |first1=Steve |title=Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity |date=2016 |publisher=Avery |location=New York City, NY |pages=319–321 |isbn=978-0399185618}}</ref> Deemed the "Feminine Boy Project", the treatments used ] to reward gender-conforming behaviors, and punish gender non-conforming behaviors.<ref name="silberman_2016_319"/>
Freud‘s main discussion of female homosexuality was the 1920 paper “The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman“, which described his analysis of a young woman who had entered therapy because her parents were concerned that she was a ]. Her father wanted this condition changed. In Freud‘s view, the prognosis was unfavourable because of the circumstances under which she entered therapy, and because homosexuality was not an illness or neurotic conflict. Freud wrote that changing homosexuality was difficult and possible only under unusually favourable conditions, observing that “in general to undertake to convert a fully developed homosexual into a heterosexual does not offer much more prospect of success than the reverse.”<ref name="SigmundFreudCaseHistoriesIIP376">{{Harvnb|Freud|1991|p=376}}</ref> Success meant making heterosexual feeling possible, not eliminating homosexual feelings.<ref>{{Harvnb|Freud|1991|p=375}}</ref>


{{Anchor|Living in your own skin model}}
Gay people could seldom be convinced that heterosexual sex would provide them with the same pleasure they derived from homosexual sex. Patients often wanted to become heterosexual for reasons Freud considered superficial, including fear of social disapproval, an insufficient motive for change. Some might have no real desire to become heterosexual, seeking treatment only to convince themselves that they had done everything possible to change, leaving them free to return to homosexuality after the failure they expected. Freud therefore told the parents only that he was prepared to study their daughter to determine what effects therapy might have. He eventually broke off the treatment entirely because of what he saw as her hostility to men.<ref name="OconnorandRyan">{{Harvnb|O’Connor|Ryan|1993|p=30-47}}</ref><ref name="SigmundFreudCaseHistoriesII">{{Harvnb|Freud|1991|p=371-400}}</ref><ref name="LewesP34">{{Harvnb|Lewes|1988|p=34}}</ref>
] at the ] adopted Richard Green's methods, but narrowed the scope to attempting to prevent the child from identifying as transgender by modifying gender behavior and presentation to conform to the expectations of the assigned gender at birth, which he dubbed the "living in your own skin" model. His model used the same interventions as Green with the addition of ].{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=58}}<ref name="forcier_2020_177">{{Cite book |last1=Chung |first1=Kathleen |last2=Rhoads |first2=Sarah |last3=Rolin |first3=Alicia |last4=Sackett-Taylor |first4=Andrew C. |last5=Forcier |first5=Michelle |editor-last1=Forcier |editor-first1=Michelle |editor-last2=Van Schalkwyk |editor-first2=Gerrit |editor-last3=Turban |editor-first3=Jack L. |date=2020 |title=Pediatric Gender Identity: Gender-affirming Care for Transgender & Gender Diverse Youth |publisher=Springer |chapter=Treatment Paradigms for Prepubertal Children |page=177 |isbn=978-3030389086}}</ref><ref name="Hart">{{Cite book |title=Banning 'conversion therapy': legal and policy perspectives |date=2023 |publisher=Hart |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-5099-6117-7 |editor-last=Trispiotis |editor-first=Ilias |location=Oxford London New York New Delhi Sydney |pages=134 |editor-last2=Purshouse |editor-first2=Craig}}</ref><ref name="ashley_2022_4">{{Cite book |last1=Ashley |first1=Florence |title=Banning Transgender Conversion Practices: A Legal and Policy Analysis |date=2022 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |isbn=978-0774866958 |location=Vancouver, BC |pages=4–6}}</ref>


==Motivations==
In 1935, Freud wrote a mother who had asked him to treat her son a letter that later became famous<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewes|1988|p=32}}</ref>:
A frequent motivation for adults who pursue conversion therapy is their religious beliefs, especially ] and ], that disapprove of same-sex relations. These adults prioritize maintaining a good relationship with their family and religious community.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=9}} Adolescents who are pressured by their families into undergoing conversion therapy also typically come from a conservative religious background.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=9}} Youth from families with low ] are also more likely to undergo conversion therapy.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=11}}


==Theories and techniques==
{{quote|I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual...By asking me if I can help , you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies, which are present in every homosexual; in the majority of cases it is no more possible. It is a question of the quality and the age of the individual. The result of treatment cannot be predicted.<ref name="ErnstLFreud">{{Harvnb|Freud|1992|p=423-424}}</ref>}}
As ] have become more tolerant over time, the most harsh conversion therapy methods such as aversion have been reduced. Secular conversion therapy is offered less often due to reduced medical pathologization of homosexuality, and religious practitioners have become more dominant.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Andrade |first1=G. |last2=Campo Redondo |first2=M. |title=Is conversion therapy ethical? A renewed discussion in the context of legal efforts to ban it |journal=Ethics, Medicine and Public Health |date=2022 |volume=20 |pages=100732 |doi=10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100732 }}</ref>


====Isidor Sadger==== ===Aversion therapy===
{{see also|Behavior modification}}
] published “Fragment der Psychoanalyse eines Homosexuellen” in the ''Jahrbuch fuer sexuellen Zwischenstufen'' in 1908. It described his analysis of a melancholy Danish count who was homosexual. The analysis lasted for only thirteen days before being terminated by the patient, whose sexual orientation was not changed. Later in 1908, Sadger published “Ist der Kontraere sexual Empfindung heilbar?”, which assessed the value of psychoanalysis as a treatment for “contrary sexual feeling“, in the ''Zeitschrift fuer Sexualwissenschaft''. He answered the question of whether it could be cured in patients who were moral and determined “''mit einem runden Ja!''“ (“''with a round Yes!''“).<ref name="LewesP51">{{Harvnb|Lewes|1988|p=51}}</ref> Sadger believed that it was not enough to establish a spurious kind of heterosexual functioning or “''masturbatio per vaginam''”, wanting instead to change a patient’s “''Sexualideal''”, the internal image of his sexual object.“<ref name="LewesP68">{{Harvnb|Lewes|1998|p=68}}</ref>


] used on homosexuals included electric shock and nausea-inducing drugs during presentation of same-sex erotic images. Cessation of the aversive stimuli was typically accompanied by the presentation of opposite-sex erotic images, with the objective of strengthening heterosexual feelings.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|1991|p=152}}</ref> Another method used was the covert sensitization method, which involves instructing patients to imagine vomiting or receiving electric shocks, writing that only single case studies have been conducted, and that their results cannot be generalized. Haldeman writes that behavioral conditioning studies tend to decrease homosexual feelings, but do not increase heterosexual feelings, citing Rangaswami's "Difficulties in arousing and increasing heterosexual responsiveness in a homosexual: A case report", published in 1982, as typical in this respect.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|1991|pp=152–153}}</ref>
Sadger supported his claim that homosexuality could be cured entirely by describing a four month analysis of a patient whose crucial memories “had been wholly unconscious and first had to be unearthed very laboriously through a month-long analysis.“<ref name="LewesP62">{{Harvnb|Lewes|1988|p=62}}</ref> Making striking claims about homosexuality on the basis of brief analyses appears to have been typical for psychoanalysts in the early 20th century. The material Sadger’s patients produced appears to have been influenced by his expectations. Sadger permitted his patients to engage in homosexual activity during treatment because of his belief that "behind it, a heterosexual can again be found."<ref name="LewesP51" />


Other methods of aversion therapy in addition to electric shock included ice baths, freezing, burning via metal coils, and hard labor. The intent was for the subject to associate homosexual feelings with pain and thus result in them being reduced. These methods have been concluded to be ineffective.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 11, 2022 |title=Summary of Findings: A Review of Scientific Evidence of Conversion Therapy |url=https://www.health.state.mn.us/people/conversiontherapy.pdf |access-date=November 9, 2023 |website=Minnesota Department of Health}}</ref>
], a physician and the leader of the gay rights movement in Germany in the early 20th century, argued that the purpose of therapy should be to permit clients to accept their homosexuality, but accepted that gay men had the right to attempt to change their sexual orientation if they wished and therefore sometimes recommended them to Sadger. Hirschfeld believed that the failure of attempts to change homosexuality through psychoanalysis proved that it was biologically innate.<ref name="LeVay1996">{{Harvnb|LeVay|1996}}</ref>


Aversion therapy was developed in ] between 1950 and 1962 and in the British Commonwealth from 1961 into the mid-1970s. In the context of the Cold War, Western psychologists ignored the poor results of their Czechoslovak counterparts, who had concluded that aversion therapy was not effective by 1961 and recommended ] instead.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davison |first1=Kate |title=Cold War Pavlov: Homosexual aversion therapy in the 1960s |journal=History of the Human Sciences |date=2021 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=89–119 |doi=10.1177/0952695120911593|s2cid=218922981 }}</ref> Some men in the United Kingdom were offered the choice between prison and undergoing aversion therapy. It was also offered to a few British women, but was never the standard treatment for either homosexual men or women.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spandler |first1=Helen |last2=Carr |first2=Sarah |title=Lesbian and bisexual women's experiences of aversion therapy in England |journal=History of the Human Sciences |date=2022 |volume=35 |issue=3–4 |pages=218–236 |doi=10.1177/09526951211059422|pmid=36090521 |pmc=9449443 |s2cid=245753251 }}</ref>
====Felix Boehm====
German psychoanalysts who wrote about homosexuality included ]. He accepted Freud’s earlier theory of homosexuality involving boys’ identification with their mothers and consequent narcissistic object choice. His major work was a four-part series on homosexuality published in the ''Internationale Zeitschrift fuer Psychoanalyse'' between 1920 and 1933. It attempted to present and illustrate the most up to date psychoanalytic thinking on homosexuality. In Boehm’s view, curing homosexuality meant making enjoyable heterosexual functioning possible rather than eliminating homosexual behavior. Boehm claimed to have cured gay people in the fourth part of his series on homosexuality, but presented as proof a case in which “the homosexuality never became conscious for the patient and had never expressed itself in manifest activity.” This patient does not appear to have been homosexual. Boehm claimed that manifest homosexuals regularly abandoned treatment out of hatred for their analysts just at the point when they were close to achieving heterosexual functioning. Boehm criticised Sadger’s ''Die Lehre von den Geschlechtsverwirrugen&nbsp;... auf psychoanalytischer Grundlage'' for its brief analyses, many of which lasted only weeks or months.<ref name="Lewes" />


In the 1970s, behaviorist ] was one of the main advocates of counterconditioning with malaise-inducing drugs and ] for homosexuals. He wrote that this type of therapy was successful in nearly 50% of cases. However, his studies were disputed.{{sfn|Rolls|2019|p={{page needed|date=June 2023}}}}
====Sandor Ferenczi====
Behavior therapists, including Eysenck, used ] methods. This led to a protest against Eysenck by gay activist ] in a London Medical Group Symposium in 1972. Tatchell said that the therapy promoted by Eysenck was a form of ].{{sfn|Rolls|2019|p={{page needed|date=June 2023}}}}
] was an influential psychoanalyst. Native to Hungary, he wrote many of his works in ].
Tatchell denounced Eysenck's form of behavioral therapy as inducing ] and ] among gay men who were subjected to it.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spandler |first1=Helen |last2=Carr |first2=Sarah |title=Lesbian and bisexual women's experiences of aversion therapy in England |journal=History of the Human Sciences |date=2022 |volume=35 |issue=3–4 |pages=218–236 |doi=10.1177/09526951211059422 |pmid=36090521 |pmc=9449443 }}</ref>


===Brain surgery===
Ferenczi denied the importance of inherited factors on homosexuality, claiming that it was caused by “excessively powerful heterosexuality (intolerable to the ego)“. Ferenczi tried to distinguish between several different types of homosexuality, basing his distinctions on an unspecified number of patients whose analyses had sometimes lasted for a short period and sometimes “a whole year and even longer.” Ferenczi hoped to cure some kinds of homosexuality completely, but was content in practice with reducing what he considered gay men‘s hostility to women, along with the urgency of their homosexual desires, and with helping them to become attracted to and potent with women. In his view, a gay man who was confused about his sexual identity and felt himself to be “a woman with the wish to be loved by a man” was not a promising candidate for cure. Ferenczi believed that complete cures of homosexuality might become possible in the future when psychoanalytic technique had been improved. Sandor Rado and Melanie Klein were pupils of Ferenczi.<ref name="Lewes" /><ref name="ErnestJonesVol2">{{Harvnb|Jones|1955|p=}}</ref><ref name="MartinStanton">{{Harvnb|Stanton|1991|p=}}</ref>


In the 1940s and 1950s, U.S. neurologist ] popularized the ] as a treatment for homosexuality. He personally performed as many as 3,439<ref>{{cite news |last1=Day |first1=Elizabeth |title=He was bad, so they put an ice pick in his brain... |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |work=The Observer |date=13 January 2008 |access-date=16 November 2017 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020075415/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |url-status=live }}</ref> lobotomy surgeries in 23 states, of which 2,500 used his ice-pick procedure,<ref>{{cite web|title=Top 10 Fascinating And Notable Lobotomies|url=http://listverse.com/2009/06/24/top-10-fascinating-and-notable-lobotomies/|date=24 June 2009|website=listverse.com|access-date=26 December 2013|archive-date=27 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227024430/http://listverse.com/2009/06/24/top-10-fascinating-and-notable-lobotomies/|url-status=live}}</ref> despite the fact that he had no formal surgical training.<ref name="rowland">{{cite journal|last=Rowland|first=Lewis|date=April 2005|title=Walter Freeman's Psychosurgery and Biological Psychiatry: A Cautionary Tale|journal=Neurology Today|volume=5|issue=4|pages=70–72|doi=10.1097/00132985-200504000-00020}}</ref>
====Anna Freud====
Daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud became an influential psychoanalytic theorist in the UK after she left Austria in 1938 to escape the Nazis.<ref name="Young-Bruehl" />


In West Germany, a type of brain surgery usually involving destruction of the ] was done to some homosexual men during the 1960s and 1970s. The practice was criticized by sexologist ].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rieber |first1=Inge |last2=Sigusch |first2=Volkmar |date=1979 |title=Psychosurgery on sex offenders and sexual "deviants" in West Germany |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01541419 |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |language=en |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=526 |doi=10.1007/BF01541419 |issn=1573-2800 |pmid=391177 |s2cid=41463669 |access-date=20 June 2023 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924070658/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01541419 |url-status=live }}</ref>
] reported the successful treatment of homosexuals as neurotics in a series of unpublished lectures. In 1949 she published “Some Clinical Remarks Concerning the Treatment of Cases of Male Homosexuality” in the ''International Journal of Psychoanalysis.'' In her view, it was important to pay attention to the interaction of passive and active homosexual fantasies and strivings, the original interplay of which prevented adequate identification with the father. The patient should be told that his choice of a passive partner allows him to enjoy a passive or receptive mode, while his choice of an active partner allows him to recapture his lost masculinity. She claimed that these interpretations would reactive repressed castration anxieties, and childhood narcissistic grandiosity and its complementary fear of dissolving into nothing during heterosexual intercourse would come with the renewal of heterosexual potency.<ref name="Lewes" />


===Castration and transplantation===
Anna Freud in 1951 published “Clinical Observations on the Treatment of Male Homosexuality” in ''Psychoanalytic Quarterly'' and “Homosexuality” in the ''American Psychoanalytic Association Bulletin.'' These articles insisted on the attainment of full object-love of the opposite sex as a requirement for cure of homosexuality. In 1951 she gave a lecture about treatment of homosexuality which was criticised by Edmund Bergler, who emphasised the oral fears of patients and minimized the importance of the phallic castration fears she had discussed.<ref name="Lewes" />
{{see also|Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany}}
] (1908–2006) was spared from a concentration camp after agreeing to castration under pressure in 1938.]]
In the early twentieth century Germany experiments were carried out in which homosexual men were subjected to ] and testicles of heterosexual men were transplanted. These operations were a complete failure.{{sfn|Schmidt|1985|pp=133–134}}


] of homosexual men was widespread in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lehring |first1=Gary |title=Officially Gay: The Political Construction Of Sexuality |date=2010 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-4399-0399-5 |page=63 |language=en}}</ref> SS leader ] ordered homosexual men to be ] because he did not consider a time-limited prison sentence was sufficient to eliminate homosexuality.{{sfn|Zinn|2020b|pp=11–12}} Although theoretically voluntary, some homosexuals were subject to severe pressure and coercion to agree to castration. There was no age limit; some boys as young as 16 were castrated. Those who agreed to castration after a ] conviction were exempted from being transferred to a concentration camp after completing their legal sentence.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=147}} Some concentration camp prisoners were also subjected to castration.{{sfn|Weindling|2015|p=30}} An estimated 400 to 800 men were castrated.{{sfn|Schwartz|2021|p=383}}
Anna Freud recommended in 1956 to a journalist who was preparing an article about psychoanalysis for the London ''Observer'' that she not quote Freud‘s letter to the American mother, on the grounds that “...nowadays we can cure many more homosexuals than was thought possible in the beginning. The other reason is that readers may take this as a confirmation that all analysis can do is to convice patients that their defects or ‘immoralities‘ do not matter and that they should be happy with them. That would be unfortunate.”<ref name="Young-Bruehl">{{Harvnb|Young-Bruehl|1988|p=327}}</ref>


Endocrinologist ] attempted to change homosexual concentration camp prisoners' sexual orientations by implanting a pellet that released ]. Most of the victims, non-consenting prisoners at ], died shortly thereafter.{{sfn|Whisnant|2016|p=223}}{{sfn|Weindling|2015|pp=183–184}}
====Melanie Klein====
The Austrian-born psychoanalyst ] moved to London in 1926. Her seminal book ''The Psycho-Analysis of Children'', based on lectures given to the British Psychoanalytic Society in the 1920s, was published in 1932. Klein claimed that entry into the Oedipus Complex is based on mastery of primitive anxiety from the oral and anal stages. If these tasks are not performed properly, developments in the Oedipal stage will be unstable. Complete analysis of patients with such unstable developments would require uncovering these early concerns. The analysis of homosexuality required dealing with paranoid trends based on the oral stage. ''The Psycho-Analysis of Children'' ends with the analysis of Mr. B., a gay man. Klein claimed that he illustrated pathologies that enter into all forms of homosexuality: a gay man idealizes “the good penis” of his partner to ally the fear of attack he feels due to having projected his paranoid hatred onto the imagined “bad penis“ of his mother as an infant. She stated that Mr. B.’s homosexual behaviour diminished after he overcame his need to adore the “good penis” of an idealized man. This was made possible by his recovering his belief in the good mother and his ability to sexually gratify her with his good penis and plentiful ].<ref name="Lewes" />


An unknown number of men were castrated in ] and ] was used in other Western countries, notably against ] in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Huneke |first1=Samuel Clowes |title=States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany |date=2022 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-4213-9 |pages=53–54 |language=en}}</ref>
====Edmund Bergler====
]’s first contribution to the psychoanalytic theory of homosexuality was “Der Mammakomplex des Mannes“, an article co-authored with L. Eidelberg and published in the ''Internationale Zeitschrift fuer Psychoanalyse'' in 1933. It described a “breast complex“ found in both normal and pathological conditions, among which Eidelberg and Bergler included “a type of homosexuality.” The male child reacts violently to weaning, making unsuccessful attempts to inhibit his frustrated aggression that only heighten it. This causes ambivalent identifications, object choices, and narcissistic compensations. Cathexes are displaced from the breast onto the penis, and the infant substitutes urine for milk, attempting to make active what was once passive. He unsuccessfully tries to transfer hatred of the mother onto the father, but the Oedipus complex does not reach normal intensity because of the unresolved ambivalence of the oral period. The unstable organization achieve at the Oedipal period regresses to an earlier stage involving fixation on the oral mother, whose vagina is conflated with the infant‘s own cannibalistic mouth, transmuting it into the ''vagina dentata''. This oral fixation lead to character traits such as spite and libido charged with aggression.<ref name="Lewes" />


===Ex-gay/ex-trans ministries===
====J. Vinchon and Sacha Nacht====
] booth at a ] conference]]
J. Vinchon and Sacha Nacht in 1929 published "Considerations sur la cure psychoanalytique d’une nevrose homosexuelle" in ''Revue francaise de psychoanalyse''. This article divided gay people into three categories: those with glandular abnormalities, sexual perverts, and neurotics. Vinchon and Nacht believed that gay people in the second category (who were "comfortably settled in vice") were incurable.<ref name="Lewes" />

====Daniel Lagache====

Daniel Lagache in 1950 published “Homosexuality and Jealousy” in the ''International Journal of Psychoanalysis''. It described the analysis of a gay man, illustrating the relation of active and passive forms of homosexuality and the defensive maneuvers that mediate between them. The patient shifted from homosexual to heterosexual interests, and experienced a stage of intense jealousy that Lagache regarded as both a sign of progress and a resistance. The heterosexual interest was a new defense against passive homosexuality, while active homosexuality had been his old defense. Passive homosexuality was intolerable to the patient because it was associated with castration, but it was deeply rooted in his psychology because “submission and obedience to the father as their aim the right to take his place.”<ref name="Lewes" />

===United States===
]

====20th century====
Psychoanalysis started to receive recognition in the United States in 1909, when Sigmund Freud delivered a series of lectures at Clark University in Massachusetts at the invitation of G. Stanley Hall.<ref name="PGay1998">{{Harvnb|Gay|2006|p=}}</ref>

] in 1913 wrote “The Conception of Homosexuality”, which he published in the ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' and read before the American Medical Association’s annual meeting, where it was criticised by several doctors. Brill declared that after long study he had slowly overcome his disgust for homosexuality. He denied that homosexuality was influenced by inherited factors or necessarily related to emotional disturbance. Brill observed that it was impossibile to use the term ''homosexuality'' diagnostically, since it could refer to several different entities. Brill asserted that the development of sexual attraction to the same sex was always related to narcissism, which he incorrectly defined as love for one‘s self. Brill criticised physical treatments for homosexuality such as ] washing, ] massage, and castration, along with hypnosis, but referred approvingly to Freud and Sadger's use of psychoanalysis, calling its results “very gratifying.“<ref name=KatzP149>{{Harvnb|Katz|1976|p=149}}</ref> Since Brill understood cure of homosexuality to mean restoring heterosexual potency, he claimed that he had cured his patients in several cases, even though many remained homosexual.<ref name="Lewes" /><ref name="Katz">{{Harvnb|Katz|1976}}</ref>

Dr. ], an Austrian, published his views on treatment of homosexuality, which he considered a disease, in the American ''Psychoanalytic Review'' in 1930. Stekel believed that “success was fairly certain“ in changing homosexuality through psychoanalysis provided that it was performed correctly and the patient wanted to be treated. In 1932, the ''Psychoanalytic Quarterly'' published a translation of Dr. ]'s paper “On Female Homosexuality“. Deutsch reported her analysis of a lesbian, who did not become heterosexual as a result of treatment, but who managed to achieve a "positive libidinal relationship" with another woman. Deutsch indicated that she would have considered heterosexuality a better outcome.<ref name="Katz" />

Dr. La Forest Potter of New York City published ''Strange Loves: A Study in Sexual Abnormalities'', which focused on homosexuality, in 1933, probably to exploit the interest in the subject generated by the American publication of ]’s '']'' and Blair Niles’s ''Strange Brother.'' He believed that homosexuality was caused by psychological and hormonal disturbances, and that it could be cured if the patient wanted to change. Potter advocated a mixture of psychoanalysis and hormone treatment. He believed that marriage might help to alter lesbianism in cases in which it was not hereditary. Potter described his treatment of two lesbians, stating that it was unsuccessful in one case but successful in the other. He stated that he had successfully cured a young man of homosexuality.<ref name="Katz" />

] moved to the USA after vacating his post as psychoanalyst in Vienna in 1937.<ref name="Terry">{{Harvnb|Terry|1999|pp=308-314}}</ref> He published “Preliminary Phases of the Masculine Beating Fantasy“, a response to Freud‘s “A Child Is Being Beaten“, in ''Psychoanalytic Quarterly'' in 1938. Bergler claimed to have detected the early phase of a beating fantasy in boys. This phase began with the weaning shock, which mobilizes enormous sadistic rage against the breasts of the depriving phallic mother, which is an attempt at narcissistic restitution for the lost breasts of the mother. Due to guilt, this rage is transmuted into a masochistic fantasy of being beaten by the father, substituting the boy’s own buttocks for the mother’s breasts and idealizing the father out of hatred of the mother, thereby substituting a homosexual for a heterosexual bond. The paper shifted the important stage in the development of homosexual perversion back from the Oedipus complex to the oral stage, minimized the importance of object libido and emphasised more primitive narcissistic oral rage, and established that homosexual perversion could not be based on a primary homosexual attachment to the father, since there was always an earlier heterosexual attachment to the mother. The implication was that all outcomes of the Oedipus complex involving a passive homosexual stance toward the father are perverse.<ref name="Lewes" /><ref name="ErnestJonesVol2" />

During the three decades between Freud's death in 1939 and the Stonewall riots in 1969, conversion therapy received approval from most of the psychiatric establishment in the United States.<ref name="Drescher">{{Harvnb|Drescher|1998|pp=19-42}}</ref> Sandor Rado in 1940 criticized Freud's theory of innate bisexuality in his article "A Critical Examination of the Concept of Bisexuality". Rado concluded that pursuing the genital organs of the opposite sex is the standard form of achieving genital stimulation and that the main cause of homosexuality is anxiety, although he granted that "constitutional factors may have an influence on morbid sex developments."<ref name="JuddMarmor1965">{{Harvnb|Marmor|1965|pp=175–189}}</ref> Rado‘s article appears to have been partly motivated by the desire to combat homosexuality.<ref name="Lewes" /><ref name="PGay1998" />

Bergler was the most important psychoanalytic theorist of homosexuality in the 1950s.<ref name="Lewes" /> He was vociferous in his opposition to ], who argued that homosexuality was normal human variation. Bergler argued that Kinsey's statistical research overestimated the incidence of homosexuality because it was conducted in cities where perversion thrived. Bergler based his theories partly on analysis of the novels of literary figures known to be gay. Kinsey's work, and its reception, led Bergler to develop his own theories for treatment, which were essentially to 'blame the victim'.<ref name="Terry"/>

Bergler claimed that if gay people wanted to change, and the right therapeutic approach was taken, then they could be cured in 90% of cases.<ref name="BerglerTime">{{Harvnb|Bergler|1956}}</ref> Bergler used confrontational therapy in which gay people were punished in order to make them aware of their masochism. Bergler openly violated professional ethics to achieve this, breaking patient confidentiality in discussing the cases of patients with other patients, bullying them, calling them liars and telling them they were worthless.<ref name= "Terry"/> He insisted that gay people could be cured, and that if they believed they should be accepted, they were asking for punishment, which confirmed their pathological immaturity. Bergler initially blamed those who mistreated gay people, because it provided a rationale for the masochistic view of the world; but, from the 1950s, and following the emergence of gay rights organisations, he began to blame homosexuals for their own oppression. Bergler confronted Kinsey because Kinsey thwarted the possibility of cure by presenting homosexuality as an acceptable way of life, which was the basis of the homosexual rights activism of the time.<ref name="Terry"/> Bergler popularised his views on homosexuality and its cure in the USA in the 1950s using magazine articles and books aimed at non-specialists.<ref name="Terry" /><ref name="Bergler">{{Harvnb|Bergler|1962}}</ref>

In 1951, the mother who wrote to Freud asking him to treat her son sent Freud's response to the ''American Journal of Psychiatry'', in which it was published.<ref name="Lewes" /> The 1952 first edition of the American Psychiatric Association's ] (DSM-I) classified homosexuality as a mental disorder.<ref name="RonaldBayer" />

The homosexuality as sickness theory started to come under criticism in the 1950s. ] in 1957 pulished “The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual”, which found that "homosexuals were not inherently abnormal and that there was no difference between homosexual and heterosexual men in terms of pathology."<ref name="EHooker">{{Harvnb|Hooker|1957|pp=18-31}}</ref> This paper subsequently became influential.<ref name="MKirby">{{Harvnb|Kirby|1957|pp=674–677}}</ref> ] and his colleagues in 1962 published ''Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals'', which concluded that "although this change may be more easily accomplished by some than by others, in our judgment a heterosexual shift is a possibility for all homosexuals who are strongly motivated to change."<ref>{{Harvnb|Bieber|1962|p=}}</ref> The same year, Albert Ellis published ''Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy'', which claimed that "fixed homosexuals in our society are almost invariably neurotic or psychotic:... therefore, no so-called ''normal'' group of homosexuals is to be found anywhere."<ref name="AlbertEllis1962">{{Harvnb|Ellis|1962|p=242}}</ref> Ellis published his main work on homosexuality, ''Homosexuality: Its Causes and Cure'', in 1965.<ref name="AlbertEllis1965">{{Harvnb|Ellis|1965|p=}}</ref>

]’s first book, ''The Overt Homosexual'', was published in 1968. Socarides regarded homosexuality as an illness arising from a conflict between the ] usually arising from an early age in "a female-dominated environment wherein the father was absent, weak, detached or sadistic". He credited the earlier work of Irving Bieber with clarifying progress in therapeutic knowledge and effectivenes.<ref name="Socarides">{{Harvnb|Socarides|1968|p=}}</ref>

]]]

There was a ] in 1969 at the Stonewall Bar in New York after a police raid. The Stonewall riot acquired symbolic significance for the gay rights movement and came to be seen as the opening of a new phase in the struggle for gay liberation. Following these events, conversion therapy came under increasing attack. Activism against conversion therapy increasingly focused on the DSM's designation of homosexuality as a psychopathology.<ref name="RonaldBayer" />

] in 1970 published ''Changing Homosexuality in the Male'', which advocated a therapy based on simplified psychoanalytic ideas and behavior modification techniques.<ref name="Lewes" />

In 1973, after years of criticism from gay activists and bitter dispute among psychiatrists, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a mental disorder from the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders''. Supporters of the change used evidence from researchers such as Alfred Kinsey and Evelyn Hooker. Psychiatrst Robert Spitzer, a member of the APA's Committee on Nomenclature, played an important role in the events that lead to this decision. Critics argued that it was a result of pressure from gay activists, and demanded a referendum among voting members of the Association. The referendum was held in 1974 and the APA’s decision was upheld by a 58% majority.<ref name="RonaldBayer">{{Harvnb|Bayer|1987|p=}}</ref>

Books promoting new forms of conversion therapy were published in the 1980s. Robert Kronemeyer in 1980 published ''Overcoming Homosexuality''<ref name="Kronemeyer">{{Harvnb|Kronemeyer|1980}}</ref>, while research psychologist ] in 1983 published ''Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic''.<ref name="Moberly1983">{{Harvnb|Moberly|1983}}</ref>

The APA removed ego-dystonic homosexuality from the ] in 1987 and opposes the diagnosis of either homosexuality or ego-dystonic homosexuality as any type of disorder.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/policy/diagnoses.html |title=APA Policy Statement: Use of Diagnoses "Homosexuality" & "Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality" |accessdate=2007-08-28 |author=APA Council of Representatives |date=1987-08-30 |publisher=American Psychological Association}}</ref>

Joseph Nicolosi began playing an important role in the development of conversion therapy in the early 1990s, publishing his first book ''Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality'' in 1991.<ref name="GLAAD" /> In 1992, Joseph Nicolosi, Charles Socarides, and Benjamin Kaufman founded the ] (NARTH), a mental health organization that opposes the mainstream medical view of homosexuality and aims to "make effective psychological therapy available to all homosexual men and women who seek change."<ref name="NARTH">{{citation |url=http://narth.com/menus/goals.html |title=NARTH What We Offer |accessdate=2009-05-25 |publisher=NARTH}}</ref>

====21st century====

] ] in 2001 issued a report stating that "there is no valid scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed".<ref name="SurgeonGeneral">{{citation |url=http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/sexualhealth/call.htm#III |title="The Surgeon General's call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior", A Letter from the Surgeon General U.S. Department of Health and Human Services |accessdate=2007-03-29 |publisher=U. S. Department of Health and Human Services}}</ref> The same year, Robert Spitzer's study on sexual orientation change caused controversy and attracted media attention.<ref name="DrescherandZucker" />

The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) spoke against NARTH in 2004, stating "that organization does not adhere to our policy of nondiscrimination and ... their activities are demeaning to our members who are gay and lesbian."<ref>{{citation |last=Crow |first=C. |date=2004-11-20 |title=Irate reader's expert on gays has drawn fire from his peers |publisher=]}}</ref> In 2006, Focus on the Family and several other organizations announced that they would protest the American Psychological Association's convention in New Orleans. Mike Haley, the director of gender issues for Focus on the Family, commented that, "The APA's views on issues such as the immutability of homosexuality have caused real harm to real people and patients."<ref>{{citation |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5554/is_200608/ai_n21879692 |title=APA Convention Targeted for Protest; APA Focused More on Political Correctness Than Helping Patients, Group Says |publisher=U.S. Newswire |date=August 2006}}</ref> The same year, a survey of members of the ] rated reparative therapy as "certainly discredited", though the authors warn that the results should be interpreted carefully as an initial step, not a final word.<ref name="NorcrossKoocherandGarofalo">{{Harvnb|Norcross|Koocher|Garofalo|2006|pp=512–522}}</ref>

The ] in 2007 convened a task force to evaluate its policies regarding reparative therapy; ex-gay organizations expressed concerns about the lack of representation of pro-reparative-therapy perspectives on the task force, while alleging that anti-reparative-therapy perspectives were amply represented.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/jul/11/gay-reparative-therapy-under-scrutiny/ |title=Gay reparative therapy under scrutiny |publisher=Washington Times |location=New York |date=July 11, 2007 |accessdate=2009-02-15}}</ref>

In 2008, the organizers of an APA panel on the relationship between religion and homosexuality canceled the event after gay activists objected that "conversion therapists and their supporters on the religious right use these appearances as a public relations event to try and legitimize what they do."<ref name="Plowman">{{Harvnb|Plowman|2008}}</ref><ref name="Johnson">{{Harvnb|Johnson|2008}}</ref>

In 2009, American Psychological Association stated that it "encourages mental health professionals to avoid misrepresenting the efficacy of sexual orientation change efforts by promoting or promising change in sexual orientation when providing assistance to individuals distressed by their own or others’ sexual orientation and concludes that the benefits reported by participants in sexual orientation change efforts can be gained through approaches that do not attempt to change sexual orientation".<ref name=Apa2009>American Psychological Association: </ref>
==Theories and techniques==
{{wikinews|Dr. Joseph Merlino on sexuality, insanity, Freud, fetishes and apathy}}

===Behavioral modification===
{{Main|Behavior modification}}

Douglas Haldeman writes in "Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy for Gay Men and Lesbians: A Scientific Examination" that early behavioral forms of conversion therapy mainly employed aversive conditioning techniques, involving electric shock and nausea-inducing drugs during presentation of same-sex erotic images. Cessation of the aversive stimuli was typically accompanied by the presentation of opposite-sex erotic images, with the objective of strengthening heterosexual feelings. Haldeman discusses the work of M. P. Feldman, who in "Aversion therapy for sexual deviation: a critical review", published in 1966, claimed a 58% cure rate. Haldeman is skeptical that such stressful methods permit feelings of sexual responsiveness, and notes that Feldman defined success as suppression of homosexuality and increased capacity for heterosexual behavior.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=152}}</ref>

Haldeman also discusses the covert sensitization method, which involves instructing patients to imagine vomiting or receiving electric shocks, writing that only single case studies have been conducted, and that their results cannot be generalized. He writes that behavioral conditioning studies tend to decrease homosexual feelings, but do not increase heterosexual feelings, citing Rangaswami's "Difficulties in arousing and increasing heterosexual responsiveness in a homosexual: A case report", published in 1982, as typical in this respect.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=152-153}}</ref>

Haldeman concludes that such methods applied to anyone except gay people would be called ], writing, "Individuals undergoing such treatments do not emerge heterosexually inclined; rather they become shamed, conflicted, and fearful about their homosexual feelings."<ref>{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=153}}</ref>

Haldeman writes in "Gay Rights, Patient Rights: The Implications of Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy" that aversive treatments sometimes involved the application of electric shock to the hands and/or genitals, or nausea-inducing drugs, administered simultaneously with the presentation of homoerotic stimuli, while less cruel methods included ] reconditioning, visualization, and social skills training. All of these methods were based on the idea that homosexuality is a learned behavior that can be reconditioned.<ref name="haldeman">{{Harvnb|Haldeman|2002|pp=260–264}}</ref>

===Ex-gay ministry===
{{Main|Ex-gay}} {{Main|Ex-gay}}


Ex-gay ministries are religious groups that attempt to use religion to eliminate or change somebody's sexual orientation.<ref name="APA">{{citation |url=http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/just-the-facts.pdf |title=Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel |access-date=14 May 2010 |year=1999 |publisher=Just the Facts Coalition |archive-date=22 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422101943/http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/just-the-facts.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="DrescherandZucker">{{Harvnb|Drescher|Zucker|2006|pp=126, 175}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|1991|pp=149,156–159}}</ref><ref name="JonesandYarhouse">{{Harvnb|Jones|Yarhouse|2007|p=374}}</ref> The ex-gay umbrella organization ] in the United States ceased activities in June 2013, and the three member board issued a statement which repudiated its aims and apologized for the harm their pursuit has caused to ] people.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burnett |first=John |date=20 June 2013 |title=Group That Claimed To 'Cure' Gays Disbands, Leader Apologizes |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/06/20/193965227/group-that-claimed-to-cure-gays-disbands-leader-apologizes |website=NPR |access-date=27 January 2024 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924070613/https://www.npr.org/2013/06/20/193965227/group-that-claimed-to-cure-gays-disbands-leader-apologizes |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Change">{{citation |url=http://exodusinternational.org/2013/06/i-am-sorry |first=Alan |last=Chambers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623013409/http://exodusinternational.org/2013/06/i-am-sorry |archive-date=23 June 2013 |title=I Am Sorry |access-date=22 June 2013 |publisher=Exodus International}}</ref> Ex-trans organizations often overlap and portray being trans as inherently sinful or against God's design, or pathologize gender variance as due to trauma, social contagion, or "]."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Robinson |first1=Christine M. |last2=Spivey |first2=Sue E. |title=Ungodly Genders: Deconstructing Ex-Gay Movement Discourses of 'Transgenderism' in the US |journal=Social Sciences |date=17 June 2019 |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=191 |doi=10.3390/socsci8060191 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Tiffany |last2=Jones |first2=Timothy W. |last3=Power |first3=Jennifer |last4=Pallotta-Chiarolli |first4=Maria |last5=Despott |first5=Nathan |title=Mis-education of Australian Youth: exposure to LGBTQA+ conversion ideology and practises |journal=Sex Education |date=3 September 2022 |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=595–610 |doi=10.1080/14681811.2021.1978964 |s2cid=241018465 |doi-access=free |hdl=10536/DRO/DU:30156953 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
Some sources describe ex-gay ministries as a form of conversion therapy, while others state that ex-gay organizations and conversion therapy are distinct methods of attempting to convert gay people to heterosexuality.<ref name="DrescherandZucker" /><ref name="apa">{{citation |url=http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html |title=Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel |accessdate=2007-08-28 |year=1999 |publisher=Just the Facts Coalition}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=149,156-159}}</ref><ref name="JonesandYarhouse">{{Harvnb|JonesandYarhouse|2007|p=374}}</ref> Ex-gay ministries have also been called transformational ministries.<ref name="APA" />


=== Hypnosis ===
Ex-gay groups state that they do not conduct clinical treatment of any kind.<ref name=ExodusStatement /> ] believe reparative therapy can be a beneficial tool.<ref name=ExodusStatement> , ]. Retrieved 04-07-2007.</ref> ] states that it is unlikely therapy can erase all homosexual feelings,<ref></ref> and does not advocate any particular form of therapy.<ref></ref>
Hypnosis was used in conversion therapy since the 19th century by ] and ]. In 1967, Canadian psychiatrist Peter Roper published a case study of treating 15 homosexual (some of which would probably be considered bisexual by modern standards) people with hypnosis. Allegedly, 8 showed "marked improvement" (they reportedly lost sexual attraction towards the same sex altogether), 4 mild improvements (decrease of "homosexual tendencies"), and 3 no improvement after hypnotic treatment; he concluded that "hypnosis may well produce more satisfactory results than those obtainable by other means", depending on the ] of the subjects.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roper |first1=P. |title=The effects of hypnotherapy on homosexuality |journal=Canadian Medical Association Journal |date=11 February 1967 |volume=96 |issue=6 |pages=319–327 |pmid=6017544 |pmc=1935956 }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2023}}

===Group therapy===
{{Main|Group psychotherapy}}

Douglas Haldeman writes that group therapies intended to change homosexuality have produced contradictory results similar to those of psychoanalytic treatment.<ref name="Gonsiorek 1991 151">{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=151}}</ref>

Hadden's "Treatment of male homosexuals in groups", published in 1966, reported a 37% shift to heterosexuality in its 32 subjects. However, in Haldeman's view, its results must be viewed with skepticism because its outcome measures depended upon self-reports, and people involved in group treatment are especially susceptible to influences that might distort their reporting. Mintz's "Overt male homosexuals in combined group and individual treatment", was published in 1966, and which had had ten subjects, reported that homosexual patients were able to increase contact with heterosexuals, a claim Haldeman describes as "impressionistic." Birk's "The myth of classical homosexuality: Views of a behavioral psychotherapist, which was published in ]'s 1980 book ''Homosexual behavior: A modern reappraisal'', describes a combination of insight-oriented and social learning methods of treating homosexuality, claiming that 38% of his patients achieved solid heterosexual shifts. Haldeman writes that Birk's treatment objectives are unclear, and concludes that the problems with group therapy indicate that conversion therapy does not change sexual orientation but only instructs or coerces heterosexual behavior in a minority of subjects.<ref name="Gonsiorek 1991 151"/>


===Psychoanalysis=== ===Psychoanalysis===
{{Main|Psychoanalysis}} {{Main|Psychoanalysis}}


Douglas Haldeman writes that psychoanalytic treatment of homosexuality is exemplified by the work of Irving Bieber and his colleagues in ''Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals''. They advocated long-term therapy aimed at resolving the unconscious childhood conflicts that they considered responsible for homosexuality. Haldeman notes that Bieber's methodology has been criticized because it relied upon a clinical sample, the description of the outcomes was based upon subjective therapist impression, and follow-up date were poorly presented. Bieber reported a 27% success rate from long-term therapy, but only 18% of the patients in whom Bieber considered the treatment successful had been exclusively homosexual to begin with, while 50% had been bisexual. In Haldeman's view, this makes even Bieber's unimpressive claims of success misleading.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=150-151}}</ref> Haldeman writes that psychoanalytic treatment of homosexuality is exemplified by the work of Irving Bieber ''et al.'' in ''Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals''. They advocated long-term therapy aimed at resolving the unconscious childhood conflicts that they considered responsible for homosexuality. Haldeman notes that Bieber's methodology has been criticized because it relied upon a clinical sample, the description of the outcomes was based upon subjective therapist impression, and follow-up data were poorly presented. Bieber reported a 27% success rate from long-term therapy, but only 18% of the patients in whom Bieber considered the treatment successful had been exclusively homosexual to begin with, while 50% had been bisexual. In Haldeman's view, this makes even Bieber's unimpressive claims of success misleading.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|1991|pp=150–151}}</ref>


Haldeman discusses other psychoanalytic studies of attempts to change homosexuality. Curran and Parr's "Homosexuality: An analysis of 100 male cases", published in 1957, reported no significant increase in heterosexual behavior. Mayerson and Lief's "Psychotherapy of homosexuals: A follow-up study of nineteen cases", published in 1965, reported that half of its 19 subjects were exclusively heterosexual in behavior four and a half years after treatment, but its outcomes were based on patient self-report and had no external validation. In Haldeman's view, those participants in the study who reported change were bisexual at the outset, and its authors wrongly interpreted capacity for heterosexual sex as change of sexual orientation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=151, 256}}</ref> Haldeman discusses other psychoanalytic studies of attempts to change homosexuality. Curran and Parr's "Homosexuality: An analysis of 100 male cases", published in 1957, reported no significant increase in heterosexual behavior. Mayerson and Lief's "Psychotherapy of homosexuals: A follow-up study of nineteen cases", published in 1965, reported that half of its 19 subjects were exclusively heterosexual in behavior four and a half years after treatment, but its outcomes were based on patient self-report and had no external validation. In Haldeman's view, those participants in the study who reported change were bisexual at the outset, and its authors wrongly interpreted capacity for heterosexual sex as change of sexual orientation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|1991|pp=151, 256}}</ref>


===Reparative therapy=== ===Reparative therapy===


''Reparative therapy'' has been used as a synonym for conversion therapy generally, but Jack Drescher has argued that strictly speaking it refers to a specific kind of therapy associated with ] and ].<ref name="Drescher1998" /> Joseph Nicolosi's ''Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality'', published in 1991, introduced ''reparative therapy'' as a term for psychotherapeutic attempts to convert gay people to heterosexuality.<ref name="GLAAD">{{citation |url=http://216.235.201.198/Page.aspx?pid=373|title=GLAAD Media Reference Guide |author=GLAAD |accessdate=September 2006|format=PDF}}</ref> The term "reparative therapy" has been used as a synonym for conversion therapy generally, but according to ] it properly refers to a specific kind of therapy{{clarify|date=July 2022}} associated with the psychologists ] and ].<ref name="Drescher1998">{{Harvnb|Drescher|2000|p=152}}</ref>
For example, he wrote:
:. . . the pursuit of fulfillment through same-sex eroticism is spurred by the fearful anticipation that their masculine self-assertion will inevitably fail and result in humiliation.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nicolosi |first=Joseph |title=The Traumatic Foundation of Male Homosexuality|
url=https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/traumatic-foundation-male-homosexuality}}</ref>


The term ''reparative'' refers to Nicolosi's postulate that same-sex attraction is a person's unconscious attempt to "self-repair" feelings of inferiority.<ref name="Hicks_1999">{{cite journal |last1=Hicks |first1=Karolyn A. |title='Reparative' Therapy: Whether Parental Attempts to Change a Child's Sexual Orientation Can Legally Constitute Child Abuse |journal=American University Law Review |volume=49 |issue=2 |date=December 1999 |pages=505–547 |url=https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/aulr/vol49/iss2/4/ |access-date=10 June 2023 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924070611/https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/aulr/vol49/iss2/4/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Bright">{{Harvnb|Bright|2004|pp=471–481}}</ref>
Douglas C. Haldeman writes that Nicolosi promotes psychoanalytic theories suggesting that homosexuality is a form of arrested psychosexual development, resulting from "an incomplete bond and resultant identification with the same-sex parent, which is then symbolically repaired in psychotherapy".<ref name="haldeman" /> Nicolosi’s intervention plans involve conditioning a man to a traditional masculine gender role. He should "(1) participate in sports activities, (2) avoid activities considered of interest to homosexuals, such art museums, opera, symphonies, (3) avoid women unless it is for romantic contact, (4) increase time spent with heterosexual men in order to learn to mimic heterosexual male ways of walking, talking, and interacting with other heterosexual men, (5) Attend church and join a men’s church group, (6) attend reparative therapy group to discuss progress, or slips back into homosexuality, (7) become more assertive with women through flirting and dating, (8) begin heterosexual dating, (9) engage in heterosexual intercourse, (10) enter into heterosexual marriage, and (11) father children".<ref name="Bright">{{Harvnb|Bright|2004|pp=471-481}}</ref>


After California banned conversion practices, Nicolosi argued that "reparative therapy" didn't attempt to directly change sexual orientation but instead encourage exploration into its underlying causes, which he believed was often childhood trauma.<ref name="ashley_202209" />
Most mental health professionals consider reparative therapy discredited, but it is still practiced by some professionals.<ref name="Yoshino" /> Psychoanalysts critical of Nicolosi's theories have offered gay-affirmative approaches as an alternative to reparative therapy.<ref name="Drescher1998">{{Harvnb|Drescher|1998|p=152}}</ref><ref name="DomeniciandLesser">{{Harvnb|Domenici|1995|p=119}}</ref> ] regards reparative therapy as a useful tool to eliminate "unwanted same-sex attraction."<ref>{{citation |url=http://exodus.to/content/view/34/117/ |title=Exodus International Policy Statements |accessdate=2007-08-28 |publisher=Exodus International}}</ref>


===Sex therapy=== ===Marriage therapy===
{{See also|Relationship counseling}}
{{Main|Masters and Johnson}}
Previous editions of the ]'s ICD included "]", in which a person's sexual orientation or gender identity makes it difficult to form or maintain a relationship with a sexual partner. The belief that their sexual orientation has caused problems in their relationship may lead some people to turn to a marriage therapist for help to change their sexual orientation.<ref name="Rosik-2003">{{cite journal |last=Rosik |first=Christopher H |title=Motivational, ethical, and epistemological foundations in the treatment of unwanted homoerotic attraction |journal=Journal of Marital and Family Therapy |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=13–28 |date=January 2003 |pmid=12616795 |doi=10.1111/j.1752-0606.2003.tb00379.x |oclc=5154888155 }}</ref> Sexual orientation disorder was removed from the most recent ICD, ], after the Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health determined that its inclusion was unjustified.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Reed |first1=Geoffrey M. |last2=Drescher |first2=Jack |last3=Krueger |first3=Richard B. |last4=Atalla |first4=Elham |last5=Cochran |first5=Susan D. |last6=First |first6=Michael B. |last7=Cohen-Kettenis |first7=Peggy T. |last8=Arango-de Montis |first8=Iván |last9=Parish |first9=Sharon J. |last10=Cottler |first10=Sara |last11=Briken |first11=Peer |date=2016 |title=Disorders related to sexuality and gender identity in the ICD-11: revising the ICD-10 classification based on current scientific evidence, best clinical practices, and human rights considerations |journal=World Psychiatry |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=205–221 |doi=10.1002/wps.20354 |pmc=5032510 |pmid=27717275 }}</ref>


=== Gender exploratory therapy ===
Douglas Haldeman has described ]'s work on sexual orientation change as a form of conversion therapy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=149, 154}}</ref>
Gender exploratory therapy (GET) is a form of conversion therapy<ref name="WPATH-NHS">{{Cite web |date=November 25, 2022 |title=WPATH, ASIAPATH, EPATH, PATHA, and USPATH Response to NHS England in the United Kingdom (UK) |url=https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2022/25.11.22%20AUSPATH%20Statement%20reworked%20for%20WPATH%20Final%20ASIAPATH.EPATH.PATHA.USPATH.pdf?_t=1669428978 |website=] |access-date=2 January 2024 |archive-date=30 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130183416/https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2022/25.11.22%20AUSPATH%20Statement%20reworked%20for%20WPATH%20Final%20ASIAPATH.EPATH.PATHA.USPATH.pdf?_t=1669428978 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Bharat">{{Cite journal |last1=Bharat |first1=Bharat |last2=Dopp |first2=Alex |last3=Last |first3=Briana |last4=Howell |first4=Gary |last5=Nadeem |first5=Erum |last6=Johnson |first6=Clara |last7=Stirman |first7=Shannon Wiltsey |title=OSF |url=https://osf.io/gz5mk/ |journal=The Behavior Therapist |publisher=Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies |publication-date=October 2023 |volume=46 |issue=7 |doi=10.31234/osf.io/gz5mk |access-date=1 January 2024 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924070611/https://osf.io/gz5mk/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Lawson">{{Cite journal |last1=Lawson |first1=Zazie |last2=Davies |first2=Skye |last3=Harmon |first3=Shae |last4=Williams |first4=Matthew |last5=Billawa |first5=Shradha |last6=Holmes |first6=Ryan |last7=Huckridge |first7=Jaymie |last8=Kelly |first8=Phillip |last9=MacIntyre-Harrison |first9=Jess |last10=Neill |first10=Stewart |last11=Song-Chase |first11=Angela |last12=Ward |first12=Hannah |last13=Yates |first13=Michael |date=October 2023 |title=A human rights based approach to transgender and gender expansive health |url=https://explore.bps.org.uk/lookup/doi/10.53841/bpscpf.2023.1.369.91 |journal=Clinical Psychology Forum |language=en |volume=1 |issue=369 |pages=91–106 |doi=10.53841/bpscpf.2023.1.369.91 |issn=1747-5732 |s2cid=265086908 |access-date=1 January 2024 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924070719/https://explore.bps.org.uk/content/bpscpf/1/369/91 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Amery">{{Cite journal |last=Amery |first=Fran |date=2023-12-11 |title=Protecting Children in 'Gender Critical' Rhetoric and Strategy: Regulating Childhood for Cisgender Outcomes |url=https://www.digest.ugent.be/article/id/85309/ |journal=DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies |volume=10 |issue=2 |doi=10.21825/digest.85309 |issn=2593-0281 |doi-access=free |access-date=1 January 2024 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924070616/https://www.digest.ugent.be/article/id/85309/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Caraballo">{{Cite journal |last=Caraballo |first=Alejandra |date=December 2022 |title=The Anti-Transgender Medical Expert Industry |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-medicine-and-ethics/article/antitransgender-medical-expert-industry/25EFFECB8F71CA9A37F9F089E13BC41E |journal=Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics |language=en |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=687–692 |doi=10.1017/jme.2023.9 |issn=1073-1105 |pmid=36883410 |access-date=1 January 2024 |archive-date=1 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301135428/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-medicine-and-ethics/article/antitransgender-medical-expert-industry/25EFFECB8F71CA9A37F9F089E13BC41E |url-status=live }}</ref> characterized by requiring mandatory extended talk therapy attempting to find pathological roots for gender dysphoria while simultaneously delaying social and medical transition and viewing it as a last resort.<ref name="WPATH-NHS" /><ref name="Lawson" /><ref name="Amery" /><ref name="ashley_202209">{{Cite journal |last=Ashley |first=Florence |date=6 September 2022 |title=Interrogating Gender-Exploratory Therapy |journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=472–481 |doi=10.1177/17456916221102325 |pmc=10018052 |pmid=36068009 |s2cid=252108965}}</ref><ref name="MacKinnon">{{Cite journal |last1=MacKinnon |first1=Kinnon R. |last2=Gould |first2=Wren Ariel |last3=Enxuga |first3=Gabriel |last4=Kia |first4=Hannah |last5=Abramovich |first5=Alex |last6=Lam |first6=June S. H. |last7=Ross |first7=Lori E. |date=2023-11-29 |title=Exploring the gender care experiences and perspectives of individuals who discontinued their transition or detransitioned in Canada |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=18 |issue=11 |pages=e0293868 |bibcode=2023PLoSO..1893868M |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0293868 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=10686467 |pmid=38019738 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Practitioners of GET often view medical transition as a last resort and propose their patient's dysphoria is caused by factors such as homophobia, social contagion, sexual trauma, and autism.<ref name="Lawson" /><ref name="Caraballo" /> Some practitioners of GET avoid using their patients' chosen names and pronouns while questioning their identification.<ref name="MacKinnon" /> Commenting on gender exploratory therapy in 2022, bioethicist ] argued that its framing as an undirected exploration of underlying psychological issues bore similarities to gay conversion practices such as "]" therapy.<ref name="ashley_202209" /> States that have banned gender-affirming care for minors in the United States have called expert witnesses to argue that exploratory therapy should be the alternative treatment.<ref name="Pauly">{{Cite news |last=Pauly |first=Madison |last2=Carnell |first2=Henry |date=July 2024 |title=First they tried to "cure" gayness. Now they're fixated on "healing" trans people. |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/05/conversion-therapy-lgbtq-anti-trans-gay-gender-affirming-care/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |work=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}</ref>


There are no known empirical studies examining psychosocial or medical outcomes following GET.<ref name="MacKinnon" /><ref name="Leising">{{Cite journal |last=Leising |first=Julie |date=September 2022 |title=Gender-affirming care for youth—separating evidence from controversy |url=https://bcmj.org/sites/default/files/BCMJ_Vol64_No7-premise-corrected%20%28ID%202375120%29.pdf |journal=Bc Medic al Journal |volume=64 |issue=7}}</ref> Concerns have been raised that by not providing an estimated length of time for the therapy, the delays in medical interventions may compound mental suffering in trans youth,<ref name="Lawson" /><ref name="MacKinnon" /> while ] already promotes gender identity exploration without favoring any particular identity, and individualized care.<ref name="MacKinnon" /> GET proponents deny this.<ref name="Santoro">{{Cite news |last=Santoro |first=Helen |date=2023-05-02 |title=How Therapists Are Trying to Convince Children That They're Not Actually Trans |url=https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/gender-exploratory-therapy-trans-kids-what-is-it.html |access-date=2024-01-01 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339 |archive-date=21 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240121062936/https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/gender-exploratory-therapy-trans-kids-what-is-it.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
In ''Homosexuality in Perspective'', published in 1979, Masters and Johnson viewed homosexuality as the result of blocks that prevented the learning that facilitated heterosexual responsiveness, and described a study of 54 gay men who were dissatisfied with their sexual orientation. The original study did not describe the treatment methodology used, but this was published five years later. John C. Gonsiorek criticized their study on several grounds in 1981, pointing out that while Masters and Johnson stated that their patients were screened for major psychopathology or severe neurosis, they did not explain how this screening was performed, or how the motivation of the patients to change was assessed. 19 of their subjects were described as uncooperative during therapy and refused to participate in a follow-up assessment, but all of them were assumed without justification to have successfully changed.<ref name="Gonsiorek 1991 154">{{Harvnb|Gonsiorek|1991|p=154}}</ref>


In 2017, ] published a legal strategy which called for circumventing bans on conversion therapy by labelling the practice "gender identity exploration or development".<ref name="Eckert">{{Cite news |last=Eckert |first=A. J. |date=2022-10-22 |title=Cutting through the Lies and Misinterpretations about the Updated Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People |url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/cutting-through-the-lies-and-misinterpretations-about-the-updated-standards-of-care-for-the-health-of-transgender-and-gender-diverse-people/ |access-date=2024-12-22 |language=en-US |publisher=Science-Based Medicine}}</ref><ref name="Green-2017">{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=Richard |year=2017 |title=Banning Therapy to Change Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity in Patients Under 18 |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28270456 |journal=The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=7–11 |issn=1943-3662 |pmid=28270456}}</ref> Multiple groups now exist worldwide to promote GET and have been successful in influencing legal discussions and clinical guidance in some regions.<ref name="Amery" /> The ] (GETA) asserts that "psychological approaches should be the first-line treatment for all cases of gender dysphoria", that medical interventions for transgender youth are "experimental and should be avoided if possible", and that ] is "risky".<ref name="Santoro" /> All of GETA's leaders are members of ], a "]" group that promotes GET and argues that gender-affirming care should not be available to those under 25.<ref name="Santoro" /> In late 2023, GETA changed their name to "Therapy First".<ref name="Pauly" />
Douglas Haldeman writes that Masters and Johnson's study was founded upon heterosexist bias, and that it would be tremendously difficult to replicate. In his view, the distinction Masters and Johnson made between "conversion" (helping gay men with no previous heterosexual experience to learn heterosexual sex) and "reversion" (directing men with some previous heterosexual experience back to heterosexuality) was not well founded. Many of the subjects Masters and Johnson labelled homosexual may not have been homosexual, since, of their participants, only 17% identified themselves as exclusively homosexual, while 83% were in the predominantly heterosexual to bisexual range. Haldeman observed that since 30% of the sample was lost to the follow up, it is possible that the outcome sample did not include any people attracted mainly or exclusively to the same sex. Haldeman concludes that it is likely that, rather than converting or reverting gay people to heterosexuality, Masters and Johnson only strengthened hetersexual responsiveness in people who were already bisexual.<ref name="Gonsiorek 1991 154"/>


GETA also shares a large overlap with the ] (SEGM), which promotes GET as first-line treatment for those under 25.<ref name="splc-defining-pseudoscience">{{Cite web |title=Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network |url=https://www.splcenter.org/captain/defining-pseudoscience-network |access-date=2024-01-01 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}</ref> GETA co-founder Lisa Marchiano stated U.S. President Joe Biden's executive order safeguarding trans youth from conversion therapy would have a "chilling effect" on GET practices.<ref name="Santoro" /><ref name="Reed">{{Cite news |last=Reed |first=Erin |date=2023-01-13 |title=Unpacking 'gender exploratory therapy,' a new form of conversion therapy |url=https://xtramagazine.com/health/gender-exploratory-therapy-243833 |access-date=2024-01-01 |work=Xtra Magazine |language=en-CA}}</ref> GETA also opposed Biden's Title IX changes protecting trans students from discrimination, stating allowing trans youth in restrooms would harm the mental health of their peers.<ref name="Reed" /> The ], a small group aligned with the Christian Right,<ref group="Note">not to be confused with the ]</ref> has cited numerous studies from SEGM to claim GET is necessary to restore transgender people's "biological integrity".<ref name="splc-defining-pseudoscience" /> In November 2023, Michelle Cretella, a board member of the pro conversion therapy group ] (ATCSI, formerly NARTH), gave a speech at an ATCSI conference which endorsed GET and argued it "truly is very similar to how the Alliance has always approached unwanted same-sex attraction".<ref name="Pauly" />
==Studies of conversion therapy==


==Effects==
<blockquote>"Among those studies reporting on the perceptions of harm, the reported negative social and emotional consequences include self-reports of anger, anxiety, confusion, depression, grief, guilt, hopelessness, deteriorated relationships with family, loss of social support, loss of faith, poor self-image, social isolation, intimacy difficulties, intrusive imagery, suicidal ideation, self-hatred, and sexual dysfunction. These reports of perceptions of harm are countered by accounts of perceptions of relief, happiness, improved relationships with God, and perceived improvement in mental health status, among other reported benefits"."<ref name=Apa2009>American Psychological Association: </ref></blockquote>
{{expand section|date=June 2022}}
There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation.<ref name=":0"/> Advocates of conversion therapy rely heavily on testimonials and retrospective self-reports as evidence of effectiveness. Studies purporting to validate the effectiveness of efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity have been criticized for methodological flaws.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=7}} After conversion therapy has failed to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, participants often feel increased shame that they already felt over their sexual orientation or gender identity.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=9}}


Conversion therapy can cause significant, long-term psychological harm.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Higbee |first1=Madison |last2=Wright |first2=Eric R. |last3=Roemerman |first3=Ryan M. |title=Conversion Therapy in the Southern United States: Prevalence and Experiences of the Survivors |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |date=2022 |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=612–631 |doi=10.1080/00918369.2020.1840213|pmid=33206024 |s2cid=227039714 }}</ref> This includes significantly higher rates of ], ], and other mental health issues in individuals who have undergone conversion therapy than their peers who did not,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Christensen |first=Jen |date=2022-03-08 |title=Conversion therapy is harmful to LGBTQ people and costs society as a whole, study says |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/health/conversion-therapy-personal-and-financial-harm/index.html |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=1 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221201070406/https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/health/conversion-therapy-personal-and-financial-harm/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> including a suicide attempt rate nearly twice that of those who did not.<ref>{{Cite web |last=thisisloyal.com |first=Loyal {{!}} |title=LGB people who have undergone conversion therapy almost twice as likely to attempt suicide |url=https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgb-suicide-ct-press-release/ |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=Williams Institute |language=en-US}}</ref> Modern-day practitioners of conversion therapy—primarily from a conservative religious viewpoint—disagree with current ] and clinical guidance that does not view ] and ] as unnatural or unhealthy.<ref name=":0" />{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=5}}
===Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation?===
In May 2001, Dr. Robert Spitzer presented "Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation? 200 Participants Reporting a Change from Homosexual to Heterosexual Orientation", a study of attempts to change homosexual orientation through ex-gay ministries and conversion therapy, at the American Psychiatric Association's convention in New Orleans. The study was partly a response to the APA's 2000 statement cautioning against clinical attempts at changing homosexuality, and was aimed at determining whether such attempts were ever successful rather than how likely it was that change would occur for any given individual. Spitzer wrote that some earlier studies provided evidence for the effectiveness of therapy in changing sexual orientation, but that all of them suffered from methodological problems.<ref name="DrescherandZucker" />


In 2020, ] published a world survey and report '']'' listing consequences and life-threatening effects by associating specific public testimonies with different types of methods used to practice conversion therapies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ilga.org/resources/conversion-therapy-global-research-ilga-world-curbing-deception-february-2020/|title=Curbing deception – A world survey of legal restrictions of so-called 'conversion therapies'|first=Lucas Ramón |last=Mendos|website=ILGA World}}</ref>
He reported that after intervention, 66% of the men and 44% of the women had achieved "Good Heterosexual Functioning", which he defined as requiring five criteria (being in a loving heterosexual relationship during the last year, overall satisfacition in emotional relationship with a partner, having heterosexual sex with the partner at least a few times a month, achieving physical satisfaction through heterosexual sex, and not thinking about having homosexual sex more than 15% of the time while having heterosexual sex). He found that the most common reasons for seeking change were lack of emotional satisfaction from gay life, conflict between same-sex feelings and behavior and religious beliefs, and desire to marry or remain married.<ref name="DrescherandZucker" /><ref name="SpitzerStudy">{{Harvnb|Spitzer|2004|pp=403–417}}</ref> This paper was widely reported in the international media and taken up by politicians in the United States, Germany, and Finland, and by conversion therapists.<ref name="DrescherandZucker" />


A 2022 study estimated that conversion therapy of youth in the United States cost $650.16 million annually with an additional $9.5 billion in associated costs such as increased suicide and substance abuse.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Forsythe |first1=Anna |last2=Pick |first2=Casey |last3=Tremblay |first3=Gabriel |last4=Malaviya |first4=Shreena |last5=Green |first5=Amy |last6=Sandman |first6=Karen |title=Humanistic and Economic Burden of Conversion Therapy Among LGBTQ Youths in the United States |journal=JAMA Pediatrics |date=2022 |volume=176 |issue=5 |pages=493–501 |doi=10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.0042|pmid=35254391 |pmc=8902682 |s2cid=247252995 }}</ref> Youth who undergo conversion therapy from a religious provider have more negative mental health outcomes than those who had consulted a licensed healthcare provider.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=9}}
In 2003, Spitzer published the paper in the ]. Spitzer's study has been criticized on numerous ethical and methodological grounds. Gay activists argued that the study would be used by conservatives to undermine gay rights. Researchers observed that the study sample consisted of people who sought treatment primarily because of their religious beliefs, and who may therefore have been motivated to claim that they had changed even if they had not, or to overstate the extent to which they might have changed. That participants had to rely upon their memories of what their feelings were before treatment may have distorted the findings. It was impossible to determine whether any change that occurred was due to the treatment because it was not clear what it involved and there was no control group. Claims of change may have reflected a change in self-labelling rather than of underlying orientation or attractions, and particpants may have been bisexual before treatment. Follow-up studies were not conducted.<ref name="DrescherandZucker" /> Spitzer stressed the limitations of his study. Spitzer said that the number of gay people who could successfully become heterosexual was likely to be "pretty low", and conceded that his subjects were "unusually religious."<ref name="Ucdavis">{{citation |url=http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_changing.html |title=Attempts To Change Sexual Orientation |accessdate=2007-08-28 |publisher=] Department of Psychology}}</ref>


==Public opinion==
===Changing Sexual Orientation===
A 2020 survey carried out on US adults found majority support for banning conversion therapy for minors.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Flores |first1=Andrew R. |last2=Mallory |first2=Christy |last3=Conron |first3=Kerith J. |title=Public attitudes about emergent issues in LGBTQ rights: Conversion therapy and religious refusals |journal=Research & Politics |date=2020 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=205316802096687 |doi=10.1177/2053168020966874|s2cid=229001894 |doi-access=free }}</ref>


A 2022 ] poll found majority support in England, Scotland, and Wales for a conversion therapy ban for both sexual orientation and gender identity, with opposition ranging from 13 to 15 percent.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kirk |first=Isabelle |date=3 May 2022 |title=The majority of Welsh people support a ban on trans conversion therapy in Wales |url=https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/05/03/majority-welsh-people-support-ban-trans-conversion |access-date=30 June 2022 |website=] |language=en-gb |archive-date=30 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630035322/https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/05/03/majority-welsh-people-support-ban-trans-conversion |url-status=live }}</ref>
Ariel Shidlo and Michael Schroeder found in "Changing Sexual Orientation: A Consumer's Report", a peer-reviewed study published in 2002, that 88% of participants failed to achieve a sustained change in their sexual behavior and 3% reported changing their orientation to heterosexual. The remainder reported either losing all sexual drive or attempting to remain celibate, with no change in attraction. Some of the participants who failed felt a sense of shame and had gone through conversion therapy programs for many years. Others who failed believed that therapy was worthwhile and valuable. Shidlo and Schroeder also reported that many respondents were harmed by the attempt to change. Of the 8 respondents (out of a sample of 202) who reported a change in sexual orientation, 7 worked as ex-gay counselors or group leaders.<ref name="ShidloandSchroeder">{{Harvnb|Shidlo|Schroeder|2002|pp=249–259}}</ref>


==Legal status==
===Ethical Issues in Attempts to Ban Reorientation Therapies===
{{main|Legality of conversion therapy}}
[[File:Countries banning conversion therapy.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|Map of jurisdictions that have bans on sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts with minors.
{{legend|Navy|Criminal prohibition against conversion therapy on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity}}
{{legend|#0000ff|Only medical professionals are banned from performing conversion therapy}}
{{legend|LightGrey|No ban on conversion therapy}}]]
Some jurisdictions have criminal bans on the practice of conversion therapy, including Canada, Ecuador, France,<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 February 2022 |title=France Passed Law To Protect LGBTQ People From 'Conversion Therapy' |url=https://lqioo.com/europe-news/france-passed-law-to-protect-lgbtq-people-from-conversion-therapy |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=LQIOO |language=en-US}}</ref> Germany, Malta, Mexico and Spain.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Legislative Services Branch |date=2022-01-10 |title=Consolidated federal laws of canada, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy) |url=https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2021_24/page-1.html |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=laws.justice.gc.ca |archive-date=11 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211034855/https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2021_24/page-1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In other countries, including Albania, Brazil, Chile, Vietnam and Taiwan, medical professionals are barred from practicing conversion therapy.<ref name=Trispiotis/>


In some states, lawsuits against conversion therapy providers for ] have succeeded, but in other jurisdictions those claiming fraud must prove that the perpetrator was intentionally dishonest. Thus, a provider who genuinely believes conversion therapy is effective could not be convicted.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Purshouse |first1=Craig |last2=Trispiotis |first2=Ilias |title=Is 'conversion therapy' tortious? |journal=Legal Studies |date=2022 |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=23–41 |doi=10.1017/lst.2021.28 |s2cid=236227920 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
Mark Yarhouse and ], of the private Christian school ], in 2002 published "Ethical Issues in Attempts to Ban Reorientation Therapies", which argues that conversion therapy should be available out of respect for a patient’s values system and because there is evidence that it can be effective. They state that studies from the 1950s–1980s generally reported rates of positive outcomes at about 30%, with more recent survey research generally consistent with the extant data. Their paper was partly a response to Jack Drescher's 2001 paper, "Ethical issues surrounding attempts to change sexual orientation", which used the principle of "Do no harm" to argue against conversion therapy.<ref name="EthicalIssues">{{Harvnb|Yarhouse|Throckmorton|2002|pp=66-75}}</ref>


Conversion therapy on minors may amount to ].<ref name=irct/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Canady |first1=Valerie |title=New report calls for an end to 'conversion therapy' for youth |journal=The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter |date=2015 |volume=31 |issue=12 |pages=3–4 |doi=10.1002/cbl.30088}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Cory |title=A Failed Experiment: Conversion Therapy as Child Abuse |journal=Roger Williams University Law Review |date=2022 |volume=27 |issue=1 |url=https://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR/vol27/iss1/3/ |access-date=4 July 2022 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924072750/https://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR/vol27/iss1/3/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Medical, scientific and legal views==
{{Further|], ], ] and ]}}


===American medical consensus=== ===Human rights===
In 2020, the ] released an official statement that conversion therapy is torture.<ref name=irct>{{cite web |title=Conversion Therapy is Torture |url=https://irct.org/media-and-resources/latest-news/article/1027 |website=International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims |access-date=31 May 2021 |language=en |archive-date=7 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107053543/https://irct.org/media-and-resources/latest-news/article/1027 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The same year, UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, ], said that conversion therapy practices are "inherently discriminatory, that they are ], and that depending on the severity or physical or mental pain and suffering inflicted to the victim, they may amount to torture". He recommended that it should be banned across the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/ConversionTherapy_and_HR.aspx |title='Conversion therapy' Can Amount to Torture and Should be Banned says UN Expert |date=July 13, 2020 |website=United Nations Human Rights: Office of the High Commissioner |access-date=July 20, 2021}}</ref> In 2021, Ilias Trispiotis and Craig Purshouse argue that conversion therapy violates the prohibition against degrading treatment under ], leading to a state obligation to prohibit it.<ref name=Trispiotis>{{cite journal |last1=Trispiotis |first1=Ilias |last2=Purshouse |first2=Craig |title='Conversion Therapy' As Degrading Treatment |journal=Oxford Journal of Legal Studies |date=2021 |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=104–132 |doi=10.1093/ojls/gqab024|pmid=35264896 |pmc=8902017 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nugraha |first1=Ignatius Yordan |title=The compatibility of sexual orientation change efforts with international human rights law |journal=Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights |date=2017 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=176–192 |doi=10.1177/0924051917724654|s2cid=220052834 |doi-access=free }}</ref> In February 2023 ], ], qualified those practices as “irreconcilable with several guarantees under the European Convention on Human Rights" and having no place in a human rights-based society urging the Member States of the Council of Europe to ban them for both adults and minors,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nothing to cure: putting an end to so-called "conversion therapies" for LGBTI people - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int |url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/nothing-to-cure-putting-an-end-to-so-called-conversion-therapies-for-lgbti-people |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=Commissioner for Human Rights |language=en-GB}}</ref> later in July 2023 she advocated for clear actions during a public hearing at the ] studying different approaches to legally ban "conversion therapies" in the ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-17 |title='Conversion therapies' in the EU: MEPs discuss potential ban with experts {{!}} News {{!}} European Parliament |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230717IPR03013/conversion-therapies-in-the-eu-meps-discuss-potential-ban-with-experts |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=www.europarl.europa.eu |language=en |archive-date=22 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722140351/https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230717IPR03013/conversion-therapies-in-the-eu-meps-discuss-potential-ban-with-experts |url-status=live }}</ref> In September 2024 it was reported that the European Union is considering banning "conversion therapies" across its Member States,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ramsay |first=Max |date=2024-09-17 |title=EU to Pursue Ban on Conversion Therapy in New LGBTQ Strategy |url=https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/politics/2024/09/17/eu-to-pursue-ban-on-conversion-therapy-in-new-lgbtq-strategy/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email |access-date=2024-10-05 |website=BNN Bloomberg |language=en}}</ref> while a ] that started collecting signatures in May 2024 is also calling on the ] to outlaw such practices.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Initiative detail {{!}} European Citizens' Initiative |url=https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000001_en |access-date=2024-10-05 |website=citizens-initiative.europa.eu}}</ref>
The medical and scientific consensus in the United States is that conversion therapy is potentially harmful, but that there is no scientifically adequate research demonstrating either its effectiveness or harmfulness.<ref name="Answers"/><ref name="APA" /><ref name="PsychNews">{{citation |last=H. |first=K |title=APA Maintains Reparative Therapy Not Effective |url=http://www.psychiatricnews.org/pnews/99-01-15/therapy.html |publisher=Psychiatric News (news division of the American Psychiatric Association) |date=1999-01-15 |accessdate=2007-08-28}}</ref> Anecdotal claims of cures and harm counterbalance each other.<ref></ref> Mainstream medical bodies state that conversion therapy can be harmful because it may exploit guilt and anxiety, thereby damaging self-esteem and leading to depression and even suicide.<ref name="nytconversion">{{citation |last=Luo |first=Michael |title=Some Tormented by Homosexuality Look to a Controversial Therapy |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/nyregion/12group.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin |publisher=''The New York Times'' |page=1 |date=2007-02-12 |accessdate=2007-08-28}}</ref> There is also concern in the mental health community that the advancement of conversion therapy can cause social harm by disseminating inaccurate views about sexual orientation and the ability of gay and bisexual people to lead happy, healthy lives.<ref name="APA" />


==In media==
Mainstream health organizations critical of conversion therapy include the ],<ref name="AmericanMedicalAssociation">{{citation |url=http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/glbt-advisory-committee/ama-policy-regarding-sexual-orientation.shtml |title=American Medical Association policy regarding sexual orientation |accessdate=2007-07-30 |date=2007-07-11 |publisher=American Medical Association}}</ref> ], the ], the ], the ], the ], the American Association of School Administrators, the ], the ], the American Academy of Physician Assistants, and the ].<ref name="APA" /><ref name="Aap">{{citation |first=Committee on Adolescence |title=Homosexuality and Adolesence |year=1993 |journal=Pediatrics, Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics |volume=92 |pages=631–634 |url=http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/92/4/631.pdf |accessdate=2007-08-28 |format=PDF}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=http://www.spiritindia.com/health-care-news-articles-10085.html |title=Physician Assistants vote on retail clinics, reparative therapy |accessdate=2007-08-28 |publisher=SpiritIndia.com}}</ref>


Efforts to change sexual orientation have been depicted and discussed in popular culture and various media. More recent examples include: '']'', '']'', ], '']'', and documentary features ''], Homotherapy: A Religious Sickness.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=MEDIAWAN - HOMOTHERAPY, A RELIGIOUS SICKNESS (2019) |url=https://rights.mediawan.com/world-catalogue/documentary/program/4397 |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=rights.mediawan.com |archive-date=22 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722140353/https://rights.mediawan.com/world-catalogue/documentary/program/4397 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-11-26 |title=" Homothérapies " sur Arte : le scandale des " conversions " sexuelles forcées |language=fr |work=Le Monde.fr |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2019/11/26/homotherapies-sur-arte-le-scandale-des-conversions-sexuelles-forcees_6020634_3246.html |access-date=2023-07-22 |archive-date=22 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722140350/https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2019/11/26/homotherapies-sur-arte-le-scandale-des-conversions-sexuelles-forcees_6020634_3246.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Mainstream medical organizations do not accept the anecdotal evidence offered by conversion therapists for several reasons. These include the fact that the results are not published in peer-reviewed journals, but tend to be released to the ] and the ], that random samples of subjects are not used and results are reliant upon the subjects' own self-reported outcomes or on evaluations by therapists which may be subject to ], that the evidence is gathered over short periods of time and there is little follow-up data to determine whether the therapy was effective over the long-term, that the evidence does not demonstrate a change in sexual orientation but merely a reduction in same-sex behavior, that the possibility that subjects may be bisexual and have simply been convinced to restrict their sexual activity to the opposite sex was not considered, there is often no control group to rule out the possibility that other things, such as being motivated to change, were the true cause of any change the researchers observed in the study participants,<ref> Page 2</ref> that conversion therapists falsely assume that homosexuality is a mental disorder, and that their research focuses almost exclusively on gay men and rarely includes lesbians.<ref name="Haldeman">{{Harvnb|Haldeman|2002}}</ref><ref name="APA">{{citation |url=http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html |title=Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel |accessdate=2007-08-28 |year=1999 |publisher=Just the Facts Coalition}}</ref><ref name="Bright" /><ref name="Ucdavis" /><ref>{{citation |last=Haldeman |first=Douglas |title=The Pseudo-science of Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy |year=1999 |month=December |journal=The Policy Journal of the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–4 |url=http://www.iglss.org/media/files/Angles_41.pdf |accessdate=2007-08-28 |format=PDF}}</ref>


===Ethics guidelines=== ==Medical views==
{{main|Medical views of conversion therapy}}
In 1998, the ] issued a statement opposing any treatment which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder or that a person should change their orientation, but did not have a formal position on other treatments that attempt to change a person's sexual orientation. In 2000, they augmented that statement by saying that as a general principle, a therapist should not determine the goal of treatment, but recommends that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change clients' sexual orientation until more research is available.<ref name="Psych" />


National health organizations around the world have uniformly denounced and criticized sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts.<ref name="Lambda">{{cite news|title=Health and Medical Organization Statements on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity/Expression and 'Reparative Therapy'|url=https://www.lambdalegal.org/publications/health-and-med-orgs-stmts-on-sex-orientation-and-gender-identity|newspaper=Lambda Legal|access-date=16 December 2017|archive-date=15 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615154255/https://www.lambdalegal.org/publications/health-and-med-orgs-stmts-on-sex-orientation-and-gender-identity|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="HRC">{{cite web|title=Policy and Position Statements on Conversion Therapy|url=http://www.hrc.org/resources/policy-and-position-statements-on-conversion-therapy|website=Human Rights Campaign|access-date=12 April 2017|archive-date=27 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427021742/http://www.hrc.org/resources/policy-and-position-statements-on-conversion-therapy|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 2021 |title=Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK |url=https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/media/cptnc5qm/mou2.pdf |publisher=] |access-date=31 May 2023 |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924072651/https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/media/cptnc5qm/mou2.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> They state that there has been no scientific demonstration of "conversion therapy's" efficacy.<ref name="APA"/><ref name="APA-Answers">{{cite web | url=http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.aspx | title=Answers to Your Questions: For a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality | publisher=American Psychological Association | date=2008 | access-date=31 January 2015 | archive-date=20 January 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120024548/https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.aspx | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name =APA_Position/><ref name="PsychNews">{{citation |title=APA Maintains Reparative Therapy Not Effective |url=http://www.psychiatricnews.org/pnews/99-01-15/therapy.html |publisher=Psychiatric News (news division of the American Psychiatric Association) |date=15 January 1999 |access-date=28 August 2007 |archive-date=20 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820042149/http://www.psychiatricnews.org/pnews/99-01-15/therapy.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> They find that conversion therapy is ineffective, risky and can be harmful. Anecdotal claims of cures are counterbalanced by assertions of harm, and the American Psychiatric Association, for example, cautions ethical practitioners under the ] to do no harm and to refrain from attempts at conversion therapy.<ref name=APA_Position>{{cite web|url=http://www.psych.org/Departments/EDU/Library/APAOfficialDocumentsandRelated/PositionStatements/200001a.aspx |title=Therapies Focused on Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation |publisher=Psych.org |access-date=18 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910045820/http://www.psych.org/Departments/EDU/Library/APAOfficialDocumentsandRelated/PositionStatements/200001a.aspx |archive-date=10 September 2008 }}</ref> Furthermore, they state that conversion therapy is harmful and that it often exploits individual's guilt and anxiety, thereby damaging self-esteem and leading to depression and even suicide.<ref name="nytconversion">{{citation |last=Luo |first=Michael |title=Some Tormented by Homosexuality Look to a Controversial Therapy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/nyregion/12group.html |work=The New York Times |page=1 |date=12 February 2007 |access-date=28 August 2007 |archive-date=20 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420120908/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/nyregion/12group.html |url-status=live }}</ref> There is also concern in the mental health community that the advancement of conversion therapy can cause social harm by disseminating inaccurate views about gender identity, sexual orientation, and the ability of LGBT people to lead happy, healthy lives.<ref name="HRC" /> Various medical bodies prohibit their members from practicing conversion therapy.<ref>{{cite news |title=Albania becomes third European country to ban gay 'conversion therapy' |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20200516-albania-becomes-third-european-country-to-ban-gay-conversion-therapy |access-date=30 June 2022 |work=France 24 |date=16 May 2020 |language=en |archive-date=24 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200524174458/https://www.france24.com/en/20200516-albania-becomes-third-european-country-to-ban-gay-conversion-therapy |url-status=live }}</ref>
The ] has stated that they do not offer or condone any training to educate and prepare a counselor to practice conversion therapy. They strongly suggest counselors do not refer clients to a conversion therapist or to proceed cautiously once they know the counselor fully informs clients of the unproven nature of the treatment and the potential risks and takes steps to minimize harm to clients. However, "it is of primary importance to respect a client's autonomy to request a referral for a service not offered by a counselor." A counselor performing conversion therapy "must define the techniques/procedures as 'unproven' or 'developing' and explain the potential risks and ethical considerations of using such techniques/procedures and take steps to protect clients from possible harm." The counselor must also provide complete information about the treatment, offer referrals to gay-affirmative counselors, discuss the right of clients, understand the client's request within a cultural context, and only practice within their level of expertise.<ref name="ACA News">{{citation |url=http://www.counseling.org/PressRoom/NewsReleases.aspx?AGuid=b68aba97-2f08-40c2-a400-0630765f72f4
|last1=Whitman |first1=Joy S. |last2=Glosoff |first2=Harriet L. |last3=Kocet |first3=Michael M. |last4=Tarvydas |first4=Vilia |title=Ethical issues related to conversion or reparative therapy |accessdate=2007-08-28 |date=2006-05-22 |publisher=American Counseling Association}}</ref>


== See also ==
The ] "is concerned about therapies and their potential harm to patients&nbsp;... Any person who enters into therapy to deal with issues of sexual orientation has a right to expect that such therapy would take place in a professionally neutral environment absent of any social bias."<ref name="APAHelpCenter">{{citation |url=http://www.apahelpcenter.org/articles/article.php?id=31 |title=Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality
|publisher=American Psychological Association |accessdate=2009-05-27}}</ref> The APA stated, with regard to conversion therapy,


* ]
{{quote|... that psychologists do not knowingly participate in or condone unfair discriminatory practices&nbsp;... do not engage in unfair discrimination based on sexual orientation&nbsp;... respect the rights of individuals to privacy, confidentiality, self-determination and autonomy&nbsp;... , try to eliminate the effect on their work of biases based on cultural, individual and role differences due to sexual orientation&nbsp;.. where differences of sexual orientation significantly affect psychologist's work concerning particular individuals or groups, psychologists obtain the training, experience, consultation, or supervision necessary to ensure the competence of their services, or they make appropriate referrals&nbsp;... do not make false or deceptive statements concerning the scientific or clinical basis for their services&nbsp;... obtain appropriate informed consent to therapy or related procedures which generally implies that the client or patient (1) has the capacity to consent, (2) has been informed of significant information concerning the procedure, (3) has freely and without undue influence expressed consent, and (4) consent has been appropriately documented&nbsp;... the American Psychological Association urges all mental health professionals to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientation." (internal quotes, brackets, and ellipses omitted).<ref name="APA Techniques">{{citation |url=http://www.apa.org/pi/sexual.html |title=Resolution on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation |accessdate=2007-08-28 |date=1997-08-14 |publisher=American Psychological Association}}</ref>}}
* ]
* ]
* ]


== Notes ==
===International medical views===
{{Reflist|group=Note}}
{{See also|LGBT rights in Denmark}}
{{See also|LGBT rights in Finland}}
{{See also|LGBT rights in Germany}}
{{See also|LGBT rights in Norway}}
{{See also|LGBT rights in the United Kingdom}}
The development of theoretical models of sexual orientation in countries outside the United States that have established mental health professions often follows the history within the U.S. (although often at a slower pace), shifting from pathological to non-pathological conceptions of homosexuality.<ref>{{citation |title=Special Issue on the Mental Health Professions and Homosexuality |year=2003 |journal=Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy |volume=7 |issue=1/2 |publisher= Haworth Medical Press}}</ref> The ]'s ], which along with the DSM-IV is widely used internationally, states that "sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder". It lists ] as a disorder instead, which it defines as occurring where "the gender identity or sexual preference (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or prepubertal) is not in doubt, but the individual wishes it were different because of associated psychological and behavioural disorders, and may seek treatment in order to change it."<ref name="icd">{{citation |url=http://www.who.int/classifications/apps/icd/icd10online/?gf60.htm+f661 |title=ICD-10, Chapter V: Mental and behavioural disorders: Disorders of adult personality and behaviour |year=2007 |accessdate=2007-08-28 |publisher=World Health Organization}}</ref>


===Legal issues=== ==References==
{{Reflist}}
In 2005, ], an ex-gay ministry based in Memphis, was investigated by the Tennessee Department of Health and the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities for providing counselling and mental health care without a licence, and for treating adolescents without their consent. There have been reports that teenagers have been forcibly treated with conversion therapy on other occasions.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.qrd.org/qrd/religion/anti/exgay/exgay.ministries.txt |title=About Ex-Gay Ministries |author=David Williams |accessdate=2008-09-14}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Melzer |first=Eartha |title=Tenn. opens new probe of ‘ex-gay’ facility: Experts say children should not be forced into counseling |url=http://www.washblade.com/2005/7-1/news/national/tenopen.cfm |publisher=Washington Blade |date=2005-07-01 |accessdate=2007-08-28}}</ref><ref name="Ben_20060210">{{citation |last=Popper |first=Ben |title=Love in Court: Gay-to-straight ministry and the state go to court |url=http://memphisflyer.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A12034 |publisher=] |date=2006-02-10 |accessdate=2007-08-28}}</ref> In 2006, a report by the ] outlined evidence that conversion therapy groups are increasingly focusing on children.<ref name="Taskforce">{{citation |url=http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/reports/reports/YouthInTheCrosshairs.pdf |title=Youth in the crosshairs: the third wave of ex-gay activism |accessdate=2007-08-29 |last1=Cianciotto |first1=Jason |last2=Cahill |first2=Sean |year=2006 |format=PDF |publisher=National Gay and Lesbian Task Force}}</ref> Several legal researchers have responded to these events by arguing that parents who force their children into aggressive conversion therapy programs are committing ] under various state statutes.<ref>{{citation |last=Talbot |first=T. |title=Reparative therapy for homosexual teens: the choice of the teen should be the only choice discussed |journal=Journal of Juvenile Law |year=2006}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Cohan |first=J. |title=Parental Duties and the Right of Homosexual Minors to Refuse "Reparative" Therapy |journal=Women's Law Journal |year=2002 |issue=67}}</ref>

There have been few, if any, ] lawsuits filed on the basis of conversion therapy. Laura A. Gans suggested in an article published in ''The Boston University Public Interest Law Journal'' that this is because there is an "historic reluctance of consumers of mental health services to sue their care givers" and because of "the difficulty associated with establishing the elements of... causation and harm... given the intangible nature of psychological matters." Gans also suggested that a ] cause of action for ] might be sustainable against therapists who use conversion therapy on patients who specifically say that his or her anxiety does not arise from his or her sexuality.

In one of the few published U.S. cases dealing with conversion therapy, the Ninth Circuit addressed the topic in the context of an asylum application. A Russian citizen "had been apprehended by the Russian militia, registered at a clinic as a 'suspected lesbian,' and forced to undergo treatment for lesbianism, such as 'sedative drugs' and hypnosis.... The Ninth Circuit held that the conversion treatments to which Pitcherskaia had been subjected constituted mental and physical torture. The court rejected the argument that the treatments to which Pitcherskaia had been subjected did not constitute persecution because they had been intended to help her, not harm her.... The court stated that 'human rights laws cannot be sidestepped by simply couching actions that torture mentally or physically in benevolent terms such as "curing" or "treating" the victims.'" "<ref name="Gans">{{citation |last=Gans |first=Laura A. |title=Inverts, Perverts, and Converts: Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy and Liability |year=1999 |month=Winter |journal=The Boston University Public Interest Law Journal |volume=8}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}


==Bibliography== ==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
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* {{cite journal |last1=Cruz |first1=David B. |title=Controlling desires: sexual orientation conversion and the limits of knowledge and law |journal=Southern California Law Review |date=July 1999 |volume=72 |issue=5 |pages=1297–1400 |pmid=12731502 |hdl=10822/925326 }}
*{{citation |last1=Drescher |first1=Jack |last2=Zucker |first2=Kenneth |title=Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture |year=2006 |publisher=Harrington Park Press |location=New York |isbn=1-56023-557-8}}
*{{citation |last=Drescher |first=Jack |title=Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man |year=1998 |publisher=The Analytic Press |location=Hillsdale, New Jersey |isbn=0881632082}} *{{citation |last=Drescher |first=Jack |title=I'm Your Handyman: A History of Reparative Therapies |date=June 1998a |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |pmid=9670099 |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=19–42 |doi=10.1300/J082v36n01_02}}
*{{Citation |last=Drescher |first=Jack |year=2001 |title=Ethical Concerns Raised When Patients Seek to Change Same-Sex Attractions |journal=Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy |volume=5 |issue=3/4 |page=183 |doi=10.1300/j236v05n03_11|s2cid=146736819 }}
*{{citation |last1=Gonsiorek |first1=John |last2=Weinrich |first2=James |title=Homosexuality:Research Implications for Public Policy |year=1991 |publisher=Sage Publications, Inc |location=Newbury Park, California |isbn=0-8039-3764-4}}
*{{citation |editor-last=Drescher |editor-first=Jack |editor2-last=Zucker |editor2-first=Kenneth |title=Ex-Gay Research: Analyzing the Spitzer Study and Its Relation to Science, Religion, Politics, and Culture |year=2006 |publisher=Harrington Park Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-56023-557-6}}
*{{citation |last=Haldeman |first=Douglas C. |title=Gay Rights, Patient Rights: The Implications of Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy |year=2002 |month=June |journal=Professional Psychology: Research and Practice |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages= |doi=10.1037//0735-7028.33.3.260}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Drescher |first1=Jack |title=Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man |journal=The American Journal of Psychoanalysis |date=2000 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=191–196 |doi=10.1023/a:1001968909523 |pmid=10874429 }}
*{{citation |last=Johnson |first=Chris |title=Robinson backs out of symposium on "ex-gays" |publisher=Washington Blade |url=http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=18015 |date=2008-05-12}}
* {{cite book |doi=10.4135/9781483325422.n10 |chapter=Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy for Gay Men and Lesbians: A Scientific Examination |title=Homosexuality: Research Implications for Public Policy |year=1991 |last1=Haldeman |first1=Douglas |pages=149–160 |isbn=978-0-8039-3764-2 }}
*{{citation |last=Plowman |first=William |title=Homosexuality Panel Squelched by Gay Activists |date=2008-05-12 |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90365869 |publisher=NPR}}
* {{cite book |doi=10.1037/0000266-001 |chapter=Introduction: A history of conversion therapy, from accepted practice to condemnation |title=The case against conversion 'therapy': Evidence, ethics, and alternatives |year=2022 |last1=Haldeman |first1=Douglas C. |pages=3–16 |isbn=978-1-4338-3711-1 |s2cid=243777493 }}
*{{citation |last1=Shidlo |first1=Ariel |last2=Schroeder |first2=Michael |title=Changing Sexual Orientation: A Consumers’ Report |year=2002 |journal=Professional Psychology: Research and Practice |volume=33 |issue=3 |doi=10.1037//0735-7028.33.3.249}}
* {{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Stanton L. |last2=Yarhouse |first2=Mark A. |title=Ex-Gays?: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation |date=2007 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-2846-3 }}{{unreliable source?|date=February 2023}}
*{{citation |last=Spitzer |first=Robert L. |title=Can Some Gay Men and Lesbians Change Their Sexual Orientation? 200 Participants Reporting a Change from Homosexual to Heterosexual Orientation |year=2003 |month=October |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |volume=32 |issue=5 |pmid=14567650 |doi=10.1023/A:1025647527010}}
*{{Cite book |last1=Rivera |first1=David P. |title=The Case Against Conversion Therapy: Evidence, Ethics, and Alternatives |last2=Pardo |first2=Seth T. |publisher=American Psychological Association |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-4338-3711-1 |editor-last=Haldeman |editor-first=Douglas C. |pages=51–68 |language=en |chapter=Gender identity change efforts: A summary |doi=10.1037/0000266-003 |s2cid=243776563 }}
*{{citation |last1=Yarhouse |first1=Mark A. |last2=Throckmorton |first2=Warren |title=Ethical Issues in Attempts to Ban Reorientation Therapies |year=2002 |journal=Psychotherapy: Theory/Research/Practice/Training |volume=39 |issue=1 |doi=10.1037//0033-3204.39.1.66 |url=http://psych.umb.edu/faculty/perez/Psych215/Yarhouse%20sex%20conversion%20tx%202002.pdf |accessdate=2007-08-28 |format=PDF}}
* {{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780429294754 |title=Classic Case Studies in Psychology |year=2019 |last1=Rolls |first1=Geoff |isbn=978-0-429-29475-4 |editor-first1=Geoff |editor-last1=Rolls }}
*{{citation |last=Yoshino |first=Kenji |title=Covering |year=2002 |journal=Yale Law Journal |volume=111 |issue=4}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=Gunter |title=Allies and Persecutors |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |date=1985 |volume=10 |issue=3–4 |pages=127–140 |doi=10.1300/J082v10n03_16}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=Michael |title=Homosexuelle im modernen Deutschland: Eine Langzeitperspektive auf historische Transformationen |trans-title=Homosexuals in Modern Germany: A Long-Term Perspective on Historical Transformations |language=de |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |date=25 June 2021 |volume=69 |issue=3 |pages=377–414 |doi=10.1515/vfzg-2021-0028 |s2cid=235689714 }}
*{{citation |last=Waidzunas |first=Tom |title=The Straight Line: How the Fringe Science of Ex-Gay Therapy Reoriented Sexuality |year=2016 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-8166-9615-4 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Wachsmann |first1=Nikolaus |author1-link=Nikolaus Wachsmann |title=] |date=2015 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-300-22829-8 |language=en|orig-year=2004}}
*{{cite book |last1=Weindling |first1=Paul|author-link=Paul Weindling |title=Victims and Survivors of Nazi Human Experiments: Science and Suffering in the Holocaust |date=2015 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-4411-7990-6 |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Whisnant |first1=Clayton J.|author-link=Clayton J. Whisnant |title=Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880–1945 |date=2016 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-939594-10-5 |language=en}}
*{{citation |last=Yoshino |first=Kenji |title=Covering |year=2002 |journal=Yale Law Journal |volume=111 |issue=4 |pages=769–939 |url=http://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/covering |doi=10.2307/797566 |jstor=797566 |hdl=20.500.13051/9392 |access-date=7 May 2015 |archive-date=25 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025034757/http://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/covering |url-status=live }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Zinn|first1=Alexander|title='Das sind Staatsfeinde' Die NS-Homosexuellenverfolgung 1933–1945|trans-title="They are enemies of the state": The Nazi persecution of homosexuals 1933–1945|journal=Bulletin des Fritz Bauer Instituts|pages=6–13|date=2020b|url=https://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/fileadmin/editorial/publikationen/einsicht/Einsicht-2020_Einzelseiten.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/fileadmin/editorial/publikationen/einsicht/Einsicht-2020_Einzelseiten.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09|url-status=live|issn=1868-4211|language=de}}
{{refend}}


==External links== ==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last1=Haldeman |first1=Douglas C. |title=Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts: Evidence, Effects, and Ethics |date=2021 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-1-939594-36-5 |language=en}}
* ("Research does not support conversion therapy as an effective treatment modality.... There is potential for harm when clients participate in conversion therapy.")
* ("In the last four decades, 'reparative' therapists have not produced any rigorous scientific research to substantiate their claims of cure. Until there is such research available, APA recommends that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals' sexual orientation, keeping in mind the medical dictum to first, do no harm.")
* ("Mental health professional organizations call on their members to respect a person’s (client’s) right to self determination")
* (Those with an ] "may seek treatment in order to change it".)


{{LGBT |social=yes |prejudice=yes}} {{LGBT |orientation=yes}}
{{Pseudoscience|orientation=yes}}


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Latest revision as of 02:06, 11 January 2025

Pseudoscientific attempts to change sexual orientation or gender identity

Conversion therapy
ClaimsOne's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression can be changed to fit heterosexual, heteroromantic, and cisgender norms.
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Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have been used to this end include forms of brain surgery, surgical or chemical (hormonal) castration, aversion therapy treatments such as electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, hypnosis, counseling, spiritual interventions, visualization, psychoanalysis, and arousal reconditioning. There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and that it frequently causes significant long-term psychological harm. The position of current evidence-based medicine and clinical guidance is that homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender variance are natural and healthy aspects of human sexuality. An increasing number of jurisdictions around the world have passed laws against conversion therapy.

Historically, conversion therapy was the treatment of choice for individuals who disclosed same-sex attractions or exhibited gender nonconformity, which were formerly assumed to be pathologies by the medical establishment. When performed today, conversion therapy may constitute fraud, and when performed on minors, a form of child abuse; it has been described by experts as torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; and contrary to human rights.

Terminology

Medical professionals and activists consider "conversion therapy" a misnomer, as it does not constitute a legitimate form of therapy. Alternative terms include sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) and gender identity change efforts (GICE)—together, sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (SOGICE). According to researcher Douglas C. Haldeman, SOCE and GICE should be considered together because both rest on the assumption "that gender-related behavior consistent with the individual's birth sex is normative and anything else is unacceptable and should be changed". "Reparative therapy" may refer to conversion therapy in general, or to a subset thereof.

Advocates of conversion therapy do not necessarily use the term either, instead using phrases such as "healing from sexual brokenness" and "struggling with same-sex attraction".

History

Main article: History of conversion therapy

Sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE)

The term homosexual was coined by German-speaking Hungarian writer Karl Maria Kertbeny and was in circulation by the 1880s. Into the middle of the twentieth century, competing views of homosexuality were advanced by psychoanalysis versus academic sexology. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, viewed homosexuality as a form of arrested development. Later psychoanalysts followed Sandor Rado, who argued that homosexuality was a "phobic avoidance of heterosexuality caused by inadequate early parenting". This line of thinking was popular in psychiatric models of homosexuality based on the prison population or homosexuals seeking treatment. In contrast, sexology researchers such as Alfred Kinsey argued that homosexuality was a normal variation in human development. In 1970, gay activists confronted the American Psychiatric Association, persuading the association to reconsider whether homosexuality should be listed as a disorder. The APA delisted homosexuality in 1973, which contributed to shifts in public opinion on homosexuality.

Despite their lack of scientific backing, some socially or religiously conservative activists continued to argue that if one person's sexuality could be changed, homosexuality was not a fixed class such as race. Borrowing from discredited psychoanalytic ideas about the cause of homosexuality, some of these individuals offered conversion therapy. In 2001, conversion therapy attracted attention when Robert L. Spitzer published a non-peer-reviewed study asserting that some homosexuals could change their sexual orientation. Many researchers made methodological criticisms of the study, which Spitzer later repudiated.

Gender identity change efforts (GICE)

Gender Identity Change Efforts (GICE) refer to practices of healthcare providers and religious counselors with the goal of attempting to alter a person's gender identity or expression to conform to social norms. Examples include aversion therapy, cognitive restructuring, and psychoanalytic and talk therapies. Western medical-model narratives have historically institutionalized transphobia: systemically favoring a binary gender model and pathologizing gender diversity and non-conformity. This aided the development and proliferation of GICE.

Early interventions were rooted in psychoanalytic hypotheses. Robert Stoller advanced the theory that gender-nonconforming behavior and expression in children assigned male at birth (AMAB) was caused by being overly close to their mother. Richard Green continued his research; his methods for altering behavior included having the father spend more time with the child and mother less, expecting both to exhibit stereotypical gender roles, and having them praise their child's masculine behaviors, and shame their feminine and gender-nonconforming ones. These interventions resulted in depression in the children and feelings of betrayal from parents that the treatments failed.

In the 1970s, UCLA psychologist Richard Green recruited Ole Ivar Lovaas to adapt the techniques of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy to attempt to prevent children from becoming transsexual. Deemed the "Feminine Boy Project", the treatments used operant conditioning to reward gender-conforming behaviors, and punish gender non-conforming behaviors.

Kenneth Zucker at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health adopted Richard Green's methods, but narrowed the scope to attempting to prevent the child from identifying as transgender by modifying gender behavior and presentation to conform to the expectations of the assigned gender at birth, which he dubbed the "living in your own skin" model. His model used the same interventions as Green with the addition of psychodynamic therapy.

Motivations

A frequent motivation for adults who pursue conversion therapy is their religious beliefs, especially evangelical Christianity and Orthodox Judaism, that disapprove of same-sex relations. These adults prioritize maintaining a good relationship with their family and religious community. Adolescents who are pressured by their families into undergoing conversion therapy also typically come from a conservative religious background. Youth from families with low socioeconomic status are also more likely to undergo conversion therapy.

Theories and techniques

As societal attitudes toward homosexuality have become more tolerant over time, the most harsh conversion therapy methods such as aversion have been reduced. Secular conversion therapy is offered less often due to reduced medical pathologization of homosexuality, and religious practitioners have become more dominant.

Aversion therapy

See also: Behavior modification

Aversion therapy used on homosexuals included electric shock and nausea-inducing drugs during presentation of same-sex erotic images. Cessation of the aversive stimuli was typically accompanied by the presentation of opposite-sex erotic images, with the objective of strengthening heterosexual feelings. Another method used was the covert sensitization method, which involves instructing patients to imagine vomiting or receiving electric shocks, writing that only single case studies have been conducted, and that their results cannot be generalized. Haldeman writes that behavioral conditioning studies tend to decrease homosexual feelings, but do not increase heterosexual feelings, citing Rangaswami's "Difficulties in arousing and increasing heterosexual responsiveness in a homosexual: A case report", published in 1982, as typical in this respect.

Other methods of aversion therapy in addition to electric shock included ice baths, freezing, burning via metal coils, and hard labor. The intent was for the subject to associate homosexual feelings with pain and thus result in them being reduced. These methods have been concluded to be ineffective.

Aversion therapy was developed in Czechoslovakia between 1950 and 1962 and in the British Commonwealth from 1961 into the mid-1970s. In the context of the Cold War, Western psychologists ignored the poor results of their Czechoslovak counterparts, who had concluded that aversion therapy was not effective by 1961 and recommended decriminalization of homosexuality instead. Some men in the United Kingdom were offered the choice between prison and undergoing aversion therapy. It was also offered to a few British women, but was never the standard treatment for either homosexual men or women.

In the 1970s, behaviorist Hans Eysenck was one of the main advocates of counterconditioning with malaise-inducing drugs and electric shock for homosexuals. He wrote that this type of therapy was successful in nearly 50% of cases. However, his studies were disputed. Behavior therapists, including Eysenck, used aversive methods. This led to a protest against Eysenck by gay activist Peter Tatchell in a London Medical Group Symposium in 1972. Tatchell said that the therapy promoted by Eysenck was a form of torture. Tatchell denounced Eysenck's form of behavioral therapy as inducing depression and suicide among gay men who were subjected to it.

Brain surgery

In the 1940s and 1950s, U.S. neurologist Walter Freeman popularized the ice-pick lobotomy as a treatment for homosexuality. He personally performed as many as 3,439 lobotomy surgeries in 23 states, of which 2,500 used his ice-pick procedure, despite the fact that he had no formal surgical training.

In West Germany, a type of brain surgery usually involving destruction of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus was done to some homosexual men during the 1960s and 1970s. The practice was criticized by sexologist Volkmar Sigusch.

Castration and transplantation

See also: Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany
Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim (1908–2006) was spared from a concentration camp after agreeing to castration under pressure in 1938.

In the early twentieth century Germany experiments were carried out in which homosexual men were subjected to unilateral orchiectomy and testicles of heterosexual men were transplanted. These operations were a complete failure.

Surgical castration of homosexual men was widespread in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered homosexual men to be sent to concentration camps because he did not consider a time-limited prison sentence was sufficient to eliminate homosexuality. Although theoretically voluntary, some homosexuals were subject to severe pressure and coercion to agree to castration. There was no age limit; some boys as young as 16 were castrated. Those who agreed to castration after a Paragraph 175 conviction were exempted from being transferred to a concentration camp after completing their legal sentence. Some concentration camp prisoners were also subjected to castration. An estimated 400 to 800 men were castrated.

Endocrinologist Carl Vaernet attempted to change homosexual concentration camp prisoners' sexual orientations by implanting a pellet that released testosterone. Most of the victims, non-consenting prisoners at Buchenwald, died shortly thereafter.

An unknown number of men were castrated in West Germany and chemical castration was used in other Western countries, notably against Alan Turing in the United Kingdom.

Ex-gay/ex-trans ministries

OneByOne booth at a Love Won Out conference
Main article: Ex-gay

Ex-gay ministries are religious groups that attempt to use religion to eliminate or change somebody's sexual orientation. The ex-gay umbrella organization Exodus International in the United States ceased activities in June 2013, and the three member board issued a statement which repudiated its aims and apologized for the harm their pursuit has caused to LGBT people. Ex-trans organizations often overlap and portray being trans as inherently sinful or against God's design, or pathologize gender variance as due to trauma, social contagion, or "gender ideology."

Hypnosis

Hypnosis was used in conversion therapy since the 19th century by Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing. In 1967, Canadian psychiatrist Peter Roper published a case study of treating 15 homosexual (some of which would probably be considered bisexual by modern standards) people with hypnosis. Allegedly, 8 showed "marked improvement" (they reportedly lost sexual attraction towards the same sex altogether), 4 mild improvements (decrease of "homosexual tendencies"), and 3 no improvement after hypnotic treatment; he concluded that "hypnosis may well produce more satisfactory results than those obtainable by other means", depending on the hypnotic susceptibility of the subjects.

Psychoanalysis

Main article: Psychoanalysis

Haldeman writes that psychoanalytic treatment of homosexuality is exemplified by the work of Irving Bieber et al. in Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals. They advocated long-term therapy aimed at resolving the unconscious childhood conflicts that they considered responsible for homosexuality. Haldeman notes that Bieber's methodology has been criticized because it relied upon a clinical sample, the description of the outcomes was based upon subjective therapist impression, and follow-up data were poorly presented. Bieber reported a 27% success rate from long-term therapy, but only 18% of the patients in whom Bieber considered the treatment successful had been exclusively homosexual to begin with, while 50% had been bisexual. In Haldeman's view, this makes even Bieber's unimpressive claims of success misleading.

Haldeman discusses other psychoanalytic studies of attempts to change homosexuality. Curran and Parr's "Homosexuality: An analysis of 100 male cases", published in 1957, reported no significant increase in heterosexual behavior. Mayerson and Lief's "Psychotherapy of homosexuals: A follow-up study of nineteen cases", published in 1965, reported that half of its 19 subjects were exclusively heterosexual in behavior four and a half years after treatment, but its outcomes were based on patient self-report and had no external validation. In Haldeman's view, those participants in the study who reported change were bisexual at the outset, and its authors wrongly interpreted capacity for heterosexual sex as change of sexual orientation.

Reparative therapy

The term "reparative therapy" has been used as a synonym for conversion therapy generally, but according to Jack Drescher it properly refers to a specific kind of therapy associated with the psychologists Elizabeth Moberly and Joseph Nicolosi. For example, he wrote:

. . . the pursuit of fulfillment through same-sex eroticism is spurred by the fearful anticipation that their masculine self-assertion will inevitably fail and result in humiliation.

The term reparative refers to Nicolosi's postulate that same-sex attraction is a person's unconscious attempt to "self-repair" feelings of inferiority.

After California banned conversion practices, Nicolosi argued that "reparative therapy" didn't attempt to directly change sexual orientation but instead encourage exploration into its underlying causes, which he believed was often childhood trauma.

Marriage therapy

See also: Relationship counseling

Previous editions of the World Health Organization's ICD included "sexual relationship disorder", in which a person's sexual orientation or gender identity makes it difficult to form or maintain a relationship with a sexual partner. The belief that their sexual orientation has caused problems in their relationship may lead some people to turn to a marriage therapist for help to change their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation disorder was removed from the most recent ICD, ICD-11, after the Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health determined that its inclusion was unjustified.

Gender exploratory therapy

Gender exploratory therapy (GET) is a form of conversion therapy characterized by requiring mandatory extended talk therapy attempting to find pathological roots for gender dysphoria while simultaneously delaying social and medical transition and viewing it as a last resort. Practitioners of GET often view medical transition as a last resort and propose their patient's dysphoria is caused by factors such as homophobia, social contagion, sexual trauma, and autism. Some practitioners of GET avoid using their patients' chosen names and pronouns while questioning their identification. Commenting on gender exploratory therapy in 2022, bioethicist Florence Ashley argued that its framing as an undirected exploration of underlying psychological issues bore similarities to gay conversion practices such as "reparative" therapy. States that have banned gender-affirming care for minors in the United States have called expert witnesses to argue that exploratory therapy should be the alternative treatment.

There are no known empirical studies examining psychosocial or medical outcomes following GET. Concerns have been raised that by not providing an estimated length of time for the therapy, the delays in medical interventions may compound mental suffering in trans youth, while gender-affirming model of care already promotes gender identity exploration without favoring any particular identity, and individualized care. GET proponents deny this.

In 2017, Richard Green published a legal strategy which called for circumventing bans on conversion therapy by labelling the practice "gender identity exploration or development". Multiple groups now exist worldwide to promote GET and have been successful in influencing legal discussions and clinical guidance in some regions. The Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA) asserts that "psychological approaches should be the first-line treatment for all cases of gender dysphoria", that medical interventions for transgender youth are "experimental and should be avoided if possible", and that social transition is "risky". All of GETA's leaders are members of Genspect, a "gender-critical" group that promotes GET and argues that gender-affirming care should not be available to those under 25. In late 2023, GETA changed their name to "Therapy First".

GETA also shares a large overlap with the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), which promotes GET as first-line treatment for those under 25. GETA co-founder Lisa Marchiano stated U.S. President Joe Biden's executive order safeguarding trans youth from conversion therapy would have a "chilling effect" on GET practices. GETA also opposed Biden's Title IX changes protecting trans students from discrimination, stating allowing trans youth in restrooms would harm the mental health of their peers. The American College of Pediatricians, a small group aligned with the Christian Right, has cited numerous studies from SEGM to claim GET is necessary to restore transgender people's "biological integrity". In November 2023, Michelle Cretella, a board member of the pro conversion therapy group Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity (ATCSI, formerly NARTH), gave a speech at an ATCSI conference which endorsed GET and argued it "truly is very similar to how the Alliance has always approached unwanted same-sex attraction".

Effects

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There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation. Advocates of conversion therapy rely heavily on testimonials and retrospective self-reports as evidence of effectiveness. Studies purporting to validate the effectiveness of efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity have been criticized for methodological flaws. After conversion therapy has failed to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, participants often feel increased shame that they already felt over their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Conversion therapy can cause significant, long-term psychological harm. This includes significantly higher rates of depression, substance abuse, and other mental health issues in individuals who have undergone conversion therapy than their peers who did not, including a suicide attempt rate nearly twice that of those who did not. Modern-day practitioners of conversion therapy—primarily from a conservative religious viewpoint—disagree with current evidence-based medicine and clinical guidance that does not view homosexuality and gender variance as unnatural or unhealthy.

In 2020, ILGA World published a world survey and report Curbing Deception listing consequences and life-threatening effects by associating specific public testimonies with different types of methods used to practice conversion therapies.

A 2022 study estimated that conversion therapy of youth in the United States cost $650.16 million annually with an additional $9.5 billion in associated costs such as increased suicide and substance abuse. Youth who undergo conversion therapy from a religious provider have more negative mental health outcomes than those who had consulted a licensed healthcare provider.

Public opinion

A 2020 survey carried out on US adults found majority support for banning conversion therapy for minors.

A 2022 YouGov poll found majority support in England, Scotland, and Wales for a conversion therapy ban for both sexual orientation and gender identity, with opposition ranging from 13 to 15 percent.

Legal status

Main article: Legality of conversion therapy
Map of jurisdictions that have bans on sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts with minors.   Criminal prohibition against conversion therapy on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity   Only medical professionals are banned from performing conversion therapy   No ban on conversion therapy

Some jurisdictions have criminal bans on the practice of conversion therapy, including Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Malta, Mexico and Spain. In other countries, including Albania, Brazil, Chile, Vietnam and Taiwan, medical professionals are barred from practicing conversion therapy.

In some states, lawsuits against conversion therapy providers for fraud have succeeded, but in other jurisdictions those claiming fraud must prove that the perpetrator was intentionally dishonest. Thus, a provider who genuinely believes conversion therapy is effective could not be convicted.

Conversion therapy on minors may amount to child abuse.

Human rights

In 2020, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims released an official statement that conversion therapy is torture. The same year, UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, said that conversion therapy practices are "inherently discriminatory, that they are cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and that depending on the severity or physical or mental pain and suffering inflicted to the victim, they may amount to torture". He recommended that it should be banned across the world. In 2021, Ilias Trispiotis and Craig Purshouse argue that conversion therapy violates the prohibition against degrading treatment under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, leading to a state obligation to prohibit it. In February 2023 Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, qualified those practices as “irreconcilable with several guarantees under the European Convention on Human Rights" and having no place in a human rights-based society urging the Member States of the Council of Europe to ban them for both adults and minors, later in July 2023 she advocated for clear actions during a public hearing at the European Parliament studying different approaches to legally ban "conversion therapies" in the European Union. In September 2024 it was reported that the European Union is considering banning "conversion therapies" across its Member States, while a European Citizens' Initiative that started collecting signatures in May 2024 is also calling on the European Commission to outlaw such practices.

In media

Efforts to change sexual orientation have been depicted and discussed in popular culture and various media. More recent examples include: Boy Erased, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Book of Mormon musical, Ratched, and documentary features Pray Away, Homotherapy: A Religious Sickness.

Medical views

Main article: Medical views of conversion therapy

National health organizations around the world have uniformly denounced and criticized sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts. They state that there has been no scientific demonstration of "conversion therapy's" efficacy. They find that conversion therapy is ineffective, risky and can be harmful. Anecdotal claims of cures are counterbalanced by assertions of harm, and the American Psychiatric Association, for example, cautions ethical practitioners under the Hippocratic oath to do no harm and to refrain from attempts at conversion therapy. Furthermore, they state that conversion therapy is harmful and that it often exploits individual's guilt and anxiety, thereby damaging self-esteem and leading to depression and even suicide. There is also concern in the mental health community that the advancement of conversion therapy can cause social harm by disseminating inaccurate views about gender identity, sexual orientation, and the ability of LGBT people to lead happy, healthy lives. Various medical bodies prohibit their members from practicing conversion therapy.

See also

Notes

  1. not to be confused with the American Academy of Pediatrics

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Bibliography

Further reading

  • Haldeman, Douglas C. (2021). Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts: Evidence, Effects, and Ethics. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-1-939594-36-5.
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