THE HARM OF CONVERSION THERAPY

The studies cited above allege that a typical success rate for conversion therapies is about 30%.Ê Surprisingly, those researchers never question what might have happened to the other 70%.Ê The only comment that conversion therapists offer is that sexual orientation is difficult to change.²¹ Ê All conversion therapy rests solidly on the assumption that homosexuality is in conflict with a fulfilling life, balancing out any risks from treatment in the eyes of those therapists. It is important to ask if these treatments might result in negative consequences, however.

This authorâs fifteen years of clinical experience with gay men who have gone through some form of conversion therapy suggests a wide variability in the way people are affected.Ê All of the following comments are based upon the authorâs own clinical observations and numerous anecdotal reports which await confirmation in controlled studies.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ Some--but not all--conversion therapy clients are harmed.Ê In particular, those who have undergone treatments such as electric shock or drugs inducing vomiting while homoerotic material is presented are likely to have been harmed the most.Ê Many such individuals seen in my practiceÊ are not only tormented by an exacerbated level of shame but are physically rendered ãasexualä--not changed into heterosexuals, but no longer functioning as homosexuals either.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ In recent years, however, refugees from such cruel therapies have become less common in this authorâs practice as these treatments have fallen into disfavor.Ê At present, the majority of former conversion therapy clients, or ãex-ex-gaysä, as they are sometimes known, have gone through a religious, prayer-based program or a talk-oriented therapy of some sort.Ê Such individuals often experience continued depression over their homosexuality, compounded with a sense of shame over having failed at conversion therapy.Ê Further, they may have a psychologically debilitating sense of having lost those important life elements--family of origin, religious affiliation, social support--for which there was still some hope as long as the individual was trying to change.Ê Some former conversion therapy clients report extraordinary difficulties with interpersonal interactions, and particularly sexual intimacy, with same-sex partners.Ê

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ The authorâs own clinical practice and the views of other practitioners working with former conversion therapy clients suggest that the problems associated with conversion therapy are not limited to the client.Ê The goal of conversion treatments is to involve other individuals in the clientâs romantic and sexual life.Ê For the ex-spouses and children of conversion therapy ãexperiment relationships,ä the sense of betrayal and loss can be devastating.Ê Very often individuals and family members who have been caught in the conversion therapy process need counseling of their own.

THE DANGEROUS SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF CONVERSION THERAPY

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ The recent conversion therapy ad campaign and the practice of conversion therapy are prime pathways for devaluing lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and reinforcing stigma.Ê Inaccurate information encourages prejudice and discrimination.Ê Research in social psychology tells us that while public opinion about lesbian and gay people has moderated over the past two decades, negative attitudes about homosexuality persist, and lesbian, gay and bisexual people still experience harassment, discrimination, and violence.²² Ê Although the literature on hate crimes against gay people is only starting to emerge, recent evidence suggests that anti-gay attitudes, fueled by misinformation and cultural sanction, may greatly influence the behavior of those predisposed to abuse lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.²³ Ê

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ But if sexual orientation can be freely chosen, as conversion therapists claim, then why not change it therapeutically?Ê And why pass laws that protect the rights of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in the same way that laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or national origin?Ê From a practical perspective, even the staunchest advocates of conversion therapy will admit that sexual orientation is extremely difficult to change.Ê For every satisfied client who comes forward claiming that conversion therapy changed her or his sexual orientation, there are many more who disavow its efficacy.Ê Sexual orientation is a deeply rooted, psychologically complex aspect of the human experience.Ê Though oneâs feelings about his or her sexual orientation may be changeable and susceptible to social influence, no evidence suggests that sexual orientation itself is so malleable.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ From a civil rights perspective, the issue of whether homosexuality is unchangeable or a matter of free choice is equally irrelevant.Ê Ultimately, the right of the individual to choose a sexual orientation or to refuse conversion therapy should not be grounds for stigmatization or for limiting civil rights.Ê Our laws provide civil rights protection against discrimination related to numerous characteristics (such as religious beliefs or some disability conditions) that are the product of choices.Ê For instance, 29 states have laws that prohibit discrimination against cigarette smokers.²⁴

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ Conversion therapy is not just an individual mental health issue but has implications for society.Ê This discredited and ineffective psychological treatment harms people and reinforces the notion that homosexuality is bad.Ê In this regard, it is not a compassionate effort to help homosexuals in pain, but a means of exploiting unhappy people and of reinforcing social hostility to homosexuality. Herein lies the real ãreparative therapy:ä helping refugees of conversion therapy reconstruct their sense of identity and rediscover their capacity to love, as well as repairing a society still affected by the myth that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are mentally ill.Ê Reparative efforts are best directed toward a broken social context, not the individual who has been victimized by it.

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