Editing Conversion therapy

{{Short description|Pseudoscientific attempts to change sexual orientation or gender identity}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
[[File:Countries banning conversion therapy.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|'''[[Legality of conversion therapy]]:'''
{{legend|Navy|Criminal ban on conversion therapy}}
{{legend|#0000ff|Medical ban on conversion therapy}}
{{legend|LightGrey|No ban on conversion therapy}}]]
{{LGBT rights sidebar}}
{{Alternative medicine sidebar|fringe}}
'''Conversion therapy''' is the [[pseudoscientific]]<!-- DO NOT remove or change to "scientific" without talk page consensus --> practice of attempting to change an individual's [[sexual orientation]], [[romantic orientation]], [[gender identity]], or [[gender expression]] to align with [[heterosexual]] and [[cisgender]] norms. Conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and frequently causes significant long-term psychological harm. The position of [[evidence-based medicine]] and clinical guidance is that sexualities like [[homosexuality]] and [[bisexuality]] as well as [[gender variance]] are natural and healthy aspects of [[human sexuality]] and [[gender identity]].{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=5}}<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=APA Resolution on Sexual Orientation Change Efforts |url=https://www.apa.org/about/policy/resolution-sexual-orientation-change-efforts.pdf |website=American Psychological Association}}</ref><ref name=":4" />

When performed, conversion therapy may constitute [[fraud]]; when performed on minors it is considered to be a form of [[child abuse]]. It has been described by experts as [[torture]]; [[cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment]]; and contrary to [[human rights]]. [[laws against conversion therapy|Laws on conversion therapy]] vary, ranging from [[Chiles v. Salazar|constitutional protection]] to a criminal offense.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Wiggins|first=Christopher|date=March 31, 2026|title=States cannot ban harmful 'conversion therapy,' SCOTUS rules|url=https://www.advocate.com/news/scotus-rejects-conversion-therapy-bans|access-date=2026-03-31|website=Advocate|language=en|quote=In Chiles v. Salazar, the Court held that because conversion therapy often takes the form of talk therapy, Colorado’s law amounts to a content-based restriction on speech and cannot survive First Amendment scrutiny.}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite web |last=Gerstein|first=Josh|date=2026-03-31|title=Supreme Court strikes down conversion therapy bans|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/31/supreme-court-conversion-therapy-ban-ruling-00851858|access-date=2026-03-31|website=POLITICO|language=en|quote=States can’t ban so-called conversion therapy, aimed at changing a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, the Supreme Court has ruled.}}</ref><ref name="Drescher" />

Conversion therapy often consists of methods that involve, but are not limited to: [[talk therapy]], [[aversion therapy]], [[brain surgery]], [[chemical castration]], [[surgical castration]], [[hypnosis]], [[psychoanalysis]], [[corrective rape]], and various religious practices, including [[prayer]] and [[exorcism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://irct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Its-Torture-Not-Therapy-2020.pdf|title=It's Torture Not Therapy: A global overview of conversion therapy: practices, perpetrators, and the role of states|website=[[International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims]]|date=2020}}</ref>

== Terminology ==
{{anchor|SOCE|GICE|SOGICE|SOGIECE}}
Medical professionals and activists consider "conversion therapy" a [[misnomer]], as it does not constitute a legitimate form of [[therapy]].{{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, and more commonly referred to as "sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts" (SOGICE),<ref name="FenaughtyEtAl2023">{{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 |issn=0047-2891 |pmc=9813061 |pmid=36301377}}</ref> or "sexual orientation and gender identity or expression change efforts" (SOGIECE).<ref name="ILGA2020">{{cite web |title=Curbing deception – A world survey of legal restrictions of so-called 'conversion therapies' |url=https://ilga.org/news/conversion-therapy-global-research-ilga-world/ |website=[[International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association]] |access-date=10 September 2025 |language=en-UK |date=26 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250802230953/https://ilga.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ILGA_World_Curbing_Deception_world_survey_legal_restrictions_conversion_therapy.pdf |archive-date=2 August 2025}}</ref>

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 [[Cisgenderism|anything else is unacceptable]] and should be changed".{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=8}} The [[American Psychological Association]] stated in a 2021 resolution that some parts of SOCE also met their definition of GICE, and "intense focus" on gender-normative "conformity is a frequent characteristic of SOCE".<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=February 2021 |title=APA Resolution on Gender Identity Change Efforts |url=https://www.apa.org/about/policy/resolution-gender-identity-change-efforts.pdf |access-date=September 5, 2025 |website=American Psychological Association}}</ref>

"[[Reparative therapy]]" may refer to conversion therapy in general,{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=4}} or to [[#Reparative therapy|a subset thereof]].<ref name="Drescher1998" /> Some sources prefer the term "conversion practices" to "conversion therapy", on the grounds that the practices in question are not actually therapeutic.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-10 |title=Explainer: What are conversion practices? And why Australia needs stronger laws to combat them |url=https://www.amnesty.org.au/what-are-conversion-practices/ |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=Amnesty International Australia |language=en-AU |quote=To this day, these practices are commonly misrepresented in the media as 'gay conversion therapy', however, Australian survivor groups use the term 'LGBTQA+ conversion practices' to avoid associating the practices with therapy, as they are not at all therapeutic.}}</ref>

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 name="CreekDunn">{{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><ref name="ILGA2020"/>

===Evolving phraseology===
{{anchor|Phraseology|Evolving phraseology|Same-sex attraction|Same-sex attraction disorder|Same-sex attachment disorder|SSAD}}
{{anchor|Conversion therapy phraseology|phraseology|Evolving phraseology}}
A common term found throughout conversion therapy practices is "same-sex attraction" with various phrases or words connected to it.<ref name="ILGA2020"/><ref name="CreekDunn"/>

The term "same-sex attraction disorder" (SSAD), or sometimes "same-sex attachment disorder" was coined by Richard Fitzgibbon in the 1990s as a replacement for the term gay and the "ex-gay movement" and subsequently popularized in the 2000s by [[Richard A. Cohen]] who, in his book ''Coming Out Straight'', detailed the phrase and invented "diagnosis" that tried to [[Medicalisation of sexuality#Homosexuality|pathologize homosexuality]] as a condition, concluding that "Homosexuality is a Same-Sex Attachment Disorder." The term was picked up by the ex-gay movement in scripts such as "I used to be gay, but I don't think of myself as gay anymore. Now I just experience same-sex attraction."<ref>{{cite web |title=Equivocation and the Ex-Gay Script |url=https://www.centerforfaith.com/blog/equivocation-and-the-ex-gay-script |website=The Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender |access-date=16 September 2025 |language=en |date=18 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smilges |first1=John |title="Healthy Sexuality": "It's not gay or bad, it's SSAD": Queerness and Masquerade |journal=Canadian Journal of Disability Studies |date=5 July 2018 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=100–122 |doi=10.15353/cjds.v7i2.426 |url=https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/426 |access-date=16 September 2025 |language=en |issn=1929-9192|doi-access=free }}</ref>

A 2020 report by [[ILGA]] tracking bans on conversion therapy worldwide explained that in many countries where "conversion therapy" has been banned, "proponents had to reshape and adapt the way in which they present and offer their 'treatment'."<ref name="ILGA2020"/> The report further explains that many proponents of "conversion therapy" try to expressly distance themselves from the term "conversion therapy" or saying they support homosexuality or gender variance and referring to their alternative terminology as being something different. The report describes this effort to "make these pseudo-scientific practices 'a constant moving target'."<ref name="ILGA2020"/>

The report listed a series of common terms used by proponents of "conversion therapy" for their "services" to provide assistance with "unwanted [[same-sex attraction]]"; promoting a "healthy sexuality", addressing "sexual brokenness"; helping clients explore their "gender confusion".<ref name="ILGA2020"/>

In 2022, the ''Global Project Against Hate and Extremism'' (GPAHE) began tracking terms related to conversion therapy online in a report titled ''Conversion Therapy Online: The Ecosystem''. 
The report documents practices, techniques and [[phraseology]] used by groups providing "conversion therapy" under various names to refer to the practice itself, as well as common phrases such as "[[same-sex attracted]]" in relation to conversion therapy targeted at LGBTQ people, in particular [[gay men]] and [[transgender people]].<ref name="GPAHE2022">{{cite web |title=Conversion Therapy Online: The Ecosystem |url=https://globalextremism.org/reports/conversion-therapy-online-the-ecosystem/ |website=Global Project Against Hate and Extremism |access-date=10 September 2025}}</ref>

In January 2024, GPAHE published an updated report for 2023, highlighting that many [[social media]] platforms and search engines are still serving a lot of content related to conversion therapy. Listing examples, using the search term "overcoming same-sex attraction" on [[YouTube]] led to results from religious and non-religious groups serving videos targeting gay and transgender people, such as videos titled "Former LGBTQers Testify: If You No Longer Want to be Gay or Transgender, You Don't Have to Be."<ref name="GPAHE2023">{{cite web |title=Conversion Therapy Online: The Ecosystem In 2023 |url=https://globalextremism.org/reports/conversion-therapy-online-the-ecosystem-in-2023/ |website=[[Global Project Against Hate and Extremism]] |date=1 January 2024|access-date=10 September 2025}}</ref>

In 2022, GPAHE also started creating an ongoing tracking project on organizations connected to the promotion of "conversion therapy" practices online titled ''Conversion Therapy Online: The Players'' to document the actors involved in these activities and show the interconnectedness.<ref name="GPAHE_players">{{cite web |title=Conversion Therapy Online: The Players |url=https://globalextremism.org/reports/conversion-therapy-online-the-players/ |website=Global Project Against Hate and Extremism |access-date=10 September 2025}}</ref> 
The report highlights some larger groups at the center of these efforts such as London-based [[International Federation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice]] (IFTCC), chaired by Mike Davidson, founder of related [[Core Issues Trust]] (CIT) and several other organizations involved. IFTCC has been hosting annual conferences since its inception in 2015 with the purpose to connect individuals "seeking help with 'same-sex attraction' and 'gender confusion'" with therapists.<ref name="GPAHE_players"/>

==History==
{{main|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.{{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 [[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".<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 [[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.<ref name=Drescher/>

Despite their lack of scientific backing, some [[social conservative|socially]] or [[religious conservatism|religiously conservative]] activists continued to argue that if one person's sexuality could be changed, homosexuality was not a fixed class such as [[Race (human categorization)|race]]. 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 [[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, and Spitzer later repudiated his own study.<ref name=Drescher/>

=== 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 therapy|psychoanalytic]] and talk therapies.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=52}} Western medical-model narratives have historically favored 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}}

Early [[social engineering (political science)|interventions]] were rooted in psychoanalytic hypotheses.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=58}} [[Robert Stoller]] advanced the theory that [[gender variance|gender-nonconforming]] behavior and expression in children assigned male at birth (AMAB) was caused by being overly close to their mother. [[Richard Green (sexologist)|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.{{sfn|Rivera|Pardo|2022|p=58}}

In the 1970s, [[UCLA]] psychologist Richard Green recruited [[Ole Ivar Lovaas]] to adapt the techniques of [[applied behavior analysis]] (ABA) to attempt to prevent children from becoming [[transsexual]].<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=978-0-399-18561-8}}</ref> Deemed the "Feminine Boy Project", the treatments used [[operant conditioning]] to reward gender-conforming behaviors, and punish gender non-conforming behaviors.<ref name="silberman_2016_319"/>

{{Anchor|Living in your own skin model}}
[[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]].{{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=978-3-030-38908-6}}</ref><ref name="Hart">{{Cite book |title=Banning 'conversion therapy': legal and policy perspectives |publisher=Hart |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-5099-6117-7 |editor-last=Trispiotis |editor-first=Ilias |location=Oxford London New York New Delhi Sydney |page=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=978-0-7748-6695-8 |location=Vancouver, BC |pages=4–6}}</ref>

===Bans on conversion therapy===
In 2020, the [[United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity]] (IESOGI) published a ''Report on conversion therapy'', which documented global practices on conversion therapy against LGBTQ individuals.<ref name="GPAHE2022"/><ref name="UNIESOGI2020">{{cite web |title=Report on conversion therapy - Practices of so-called "conversion therapy" |url=https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/44/53 |website=[[United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity]] |access-date=10 September 2025|first1=Victor |last1=Madrigal-Borloz}}</ref> 
In the report, the UN IESOGI called for a global ban on "conversion therapy", as an umbrella term describing various interventions practiced to "cure" people, and to "convert" them from [[non-heterosexual]] to heterosexual, and from trans or [[gender diverse]] to cisgender.<ref name="UNIESOGI2020"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Global ban needed on bogus 'conversion therapy', argues UN rights expert {{!}} UN News |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1066652 |website=[[United Nations]] |access-date=10 September 2025 |language=en |date=21 June 2020}}</ref> The report highlighted a 2015 US court case from [[New Jersey]], "''Ferguson v JONAH'''", in which a jury [[unanimously]] found the defendants guilty of fraud, claiming they were providing "services that could significantly reduce or eliminate same-sex attraction."<ref name="UNIESOGI2020"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Michael Ferguson, et al., v. JONAH, et al. |url=https://www.splcenter.org/resources/civil-rights-case-docket/michael-ferguson-et-al-v-jonah-et-al |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |access-date=10 September 2025}}</ref> In March of 2026, laws prohibiting conversion therapy were struck down by the US Supreme Court.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Marimow |first=Ann E. |date=2026-03-31 |title=Justices Reject Colorado Law Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ for L.G.B.T.Q. Minors |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/politics/supreme-court-colorado-conversion-therapy.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=2026-04-02 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Motivations==
A frequent motivation for adults who pursue conversion therapy is religious beliefs that disapprove of same-sex relations, such as [[evangelical Christianity]], [[Orthodox Judaism]], and conservative interpretations of [[Islam]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2022-08-10 |title="I Don't Want to Change Myself": Anti-LGBT Conversion Practices, Discrimination, and Violence in Malaysia |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/08/10/i-dont-want-change-myself/anti-lgbt-conversion-practices-discrimination-and |journal=[[Human Rights Watch]] |language=en}}</ref> 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 [[socioeconomic status]] are also more likely to undergo conversion therapy.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=11}}

==Theories and techniques==
As [[societal attitudes toward homosexuality]] have become more accepting over time, the harshest conversion therapy methods, such as aversion therapy, have become less common. Secular conversion therapy is offered less frequently due to the [[Homosexuality and psychology|demedicalization of homosexuality and bisexuality]], and religious practitioners have become predominant.<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 |article-number=100732 |doi=10.1016/j.jemep.2021.100732 }}</ref>

===Aversion therapy===
{{see also|Behavior modification}}

[[Aversion therapy]] used on homosexuals and bisexuals 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><ref name="i561">{{cite journal | last1=Davison | first1=Kate | last2=Hubbard | first2=Katherine | last3=Marks | first3=Sarah | last4=Spandler | first4=Hel | last5=Wynter | first5=Rebecca | title=An Inclusive History of LGBTQ+ Aversion Therapy: Past Harms and Future Address in a UK Context | journal=Review of General Psychology | volume=29 | issue=1 | date=2025 | issn=1089-2680 | doi=10.1177/10892680241289904 | doi-access=free | pages=33–48 }}</ref> Another method used is the covert sensitization method, which involves instructing recipients to imagine vomiting or receiving electric shocks. Proponents often write that only single-case studies have been conducted to support their methods and that their results cannot be generalized. For example, 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",<ref>
Rangaswami, K. (1982). Difficulties in arousing and increasing heterosexual responsiveness in a homosexual: A case report. Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology, 9(2), 147–151</ref> published in 1982, as typical in this respect.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|1991|pp=152–153}}</ref> 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>

Aversion therapy was developed in [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|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.<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 name=":2">{{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>

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 therapy was successful in nearly 50% of cases. However, his studies were disputed.{{sfn|Rolls|2019|p={{page needed|date=June 2023}}}} Behavior therapists, including Eysenck, used aversive methods. This led to a protest against Eysenck by gay activist [[Peter Tatchell]] at a London Medical Group Symposium in 1972. Tatchell said that the therapy promoted by Eysenck was a form of [[torture]].{{sfn|Rolls|2019|p={{page needed|date=June 2023}}}} Tatchell denounced Eysenck's form of behavioral therapy as causing [[clinical depression|depression]] and [[suicidal ideation]] and [[Suicide|completion]] among gay men who were subjected to it.<ref name=":2" />

===Brain surgery===
In the 1940s and 1950s, American neurologist [[Walter Jackson Freeman II]] popularized the so-called [[Lobotomy#Transorbital lobotomy|ice-pick lobotomy]] as a treatment for homosexuality. He personally performed more than 3,000 lobotomies across 23 US states,<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><ref name=":5" /> of which 2,500 used his transorbital method,<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>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable. The statement is true, but cited to an unreliable source.|date=October 2025}} 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> Freeman was banned from performing [[psychosurgery]] in 1967.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Barker |first=Lynne |title=How to Build a Human Brain |date=18 June 2024 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan Cham |isbn=978-3-031-55297-7 |edition=1 |pages=341 |language=en-US}}</ref>

In [[West Germany]], a type of brain surgery usually involving destruction of the [[ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus]] was done on some homosexual men during the 1960s and 1970s. The practice was criticized by [[sexologist]] [[Volkmar Sigusch]].<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 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Castration and transplantation===
{{see also|Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany}}
[[File:Stolperstein von Friedrich Paul von Groszheim.jpg|thumb|[[Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim]] (1908–2006) was spared from a concentration camp after agreeing to castration under pressure in 1938.]]
In 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.{{sfn|Schmidt|1985|pp=133–134}}

[[Surgical castration]] 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 [[Heinrich Himmler]] ordered homosexual men to be [[persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany#Concentration camps|sent to concentration camps]] because he did not consider a time-limited prison sentence 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 lower 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.{{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}} [[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 the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], died shortly thereafter.{{sfn|Whisnant|2016|p=223}}{{sfn|Weindling|2015|pp=183–184}}

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.<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>

===Ex-gay/ex-trans ministries===
{{Main|Ex-gay}}

[[File:One by One booth.jpg|thumb|right|[[OneByOne]] booth at a [[Love Won Out]] conference]]

[[Ex-gay movement|Ex-gay ministries]] are religious groups that attempt to use religion to eliminate or change queer individuals' 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 [[Exodus International]] in the United States ceased activities in June 2013, and the three-member board issued a statement repudiating its aims and apologizing for the harm its pursuit had caused to [[queer 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 with ex-gay organizations, frequently portraying trans identity as inherently sinful or against [[God]]'s design and pathologizing gender variance as the result of trauma, [[social contagion]], or "[[gender ideology]]".<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>

=== Hypnosis ===
[[Hypnosis]] has been used in conversion therapy since the 19th century, first employed by [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]] and [[Albert von Schrenck-Notzing]]. In 1967, Canadian psychiatrist Peter Roper published a case study of treating 15 homosexual individuals—some of whom would probably be considered bisexual by modern standards—with hypnosis. Allegedly, eight showed "marked improvement" (they reportedly lost sexual attraction towards the same sex altogether), four showed mild improvements (decrease of "homosexual tendencies"), and three exhibited 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.<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}}

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

Haldeman writes that psychoanalytic treatment of homosexuality is exemplified by the work of [[Irving Bieber]] and colleagues<ref name="d863">{{cite book | last1=Bieber | first1=Irving | last2=Dain | first2=Harvey J. | last3=Dince | first3=Paul R. | last4=Drellich | first4=Marvin G. | last5=Grand | first5=Henry G. | last6=Gundlach | first6=Ralph H. | last7=Kremer | first7=Malvina W. | last8=Rifkin | first8=Alfred H. | last9=Wilbur | first9=Cornelia B. | last10=Bieber | first10=Toby B. | title=Homosexuality: A psychoanalytic study. | publisher=Basic Books | publication-place=New York | date=1962 | doi=10.1037/11179-000 | doi-access=free | page= | hdl=2027/mdp.39015053084482 }}</ref> in ''Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals''. They advocated long-term therapy aimed at resolving the [[Unconscious mind|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 frequency from long-term therapy, but only 18% of those deemed successful were exclusively homosexual initially, 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<ref name="d889">{{cite journal | last1=Curran | first1=Desmond | last2=Parr | first2=Denis | title=Homosexuality: An Analysis Of 100 Male Cases Seen In Private Practice | journal=The British Medical Journal | publisher=BMJ | volume=1 | issue=5022 | year=1957 | issn=0007-1447 | jstor=25382099 | pages=797–801 | doi=10.1136/bmj.1.5022.797 | pmid=13404309 | pmc=1973178 }}</ref> "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 the 19 subjects included were exclusively heterosexual in behavior four and a half years after treatment; 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 the capacity for heterosexual sex as a change of sexual orientation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haldeman|1991|pp=151, 256}}</ref>

===Reparative therapy===
The term "reparative therapy" has been used as a synonym for conversion therapy generally, but according to [[Jack Drescher]], it more correctly refers to a specific kind of therapy{{clarify|date=July 2022}} associated with the psychologists [[Elizabeth Moberly]] and [[Joseph Nicolosi]].<ref name="Drescher1998">{{Harvnb|Drescher|2000|p=152}}</ref>  
For example, he wrote: 
{{blockquote|text=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|date=19 December 2016 | 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> After California banned conversion practices, Nicolosi argued that "reparative therapy" did not attempt to change sexual orientation directly but instead encouraged exploration into its underlying causes, which he believed was often childhood trauma.<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>

A phone study by [[Robert Spitzer (psychiatrist)|Robert Spitzer]] reported that "about 66 percent of the men respondents and 44 percent of the women were able to function as heterosexuals after the therapy," while conceding that "his subjects did not constitute a study population representative of the gay and lesbian population in the U.S."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hausman|first1=Ken |title=Furor Erupts Over Study On Sexual Orientation |journal=Psychiatric News |volume=36 |issue=13 |date=6 July 2001  |pages=20–34 |doi=10.1176/pn.36.13.0020 |url=https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/pn.36.13.0020 |access-date=3 June 2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===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 causes problems in their relationship may lead some 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 relationship disorder was removed from [[ICD-11]] 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 ===
{{About|a conversion practice which delays access to gender-affirming care|[[client-centered therapy]] aimed at neutral identity exploration|Transgender health care#Identity exploration|section=yes}}

'''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.<ref name="ashley_202209" /><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=[[WPATH]] |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=dead }}</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 |pages=261–270 |doi=10.31234/osf.io/gz5mk |pmid=39713211 |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 |pmc=11661860 }}</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 |url-access=subscription }}</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><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 |article-number=e0293868 |bibcode=2023PLoSO..1893868M |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0293868 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=10686467 |pmid=38019738 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|reason=7 sources are not needed for this statement, there are plenty of MEDRS sources that sufficiently establish it|date=October 2025}} Practitioners propose that their patients' dysphoria is caused by factors such as homophobia, social contagion, sexual trauma, and [[autism]].<ref name="Lawson" /><ref name="Caraballo" /> Some practitioners avoid using their patients' chosen names and pronouns while questioning their identification.<ref name="MacKinnon" /> Commenting on GET in 2022, bioethicist [[Florence Ashley]] argued that its framing as an undirected exploration of underlying psychological issues bore similarities to conversion practices, such as "[[Conversion therapy#Reparative therapy|reparative]]" therapy.<ref name="ashley_202209" /> States that have [[Legal status of gender-affirming healthcare|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 |last1=Pauly |first1=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>

{{as of|2023}}, there are no known empirical studies examining psychosocial or medical outcomes following gender exploratory therapy.<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 transgender youth,<ref name="Lawson" /><ref name="MacKinnon" /> while the [[gender-affirming care]] model 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 2017, [[Richard Green (sexologist)|Richard Green]] published a legal strategy that 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 |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 gender exploratory therapy and have been successful in influencing legal discussions and clinical guidance in some regions.<ref name="Amery" /> 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 transitioning]] is "risky".<ref name="Santoro" /> 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.<ref name="Santoro" /> In late 2023, GETA changed its name to "Therapy First".<ref name="Pauly" />

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.<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 |date=12 December 2023 |language=en}}</ref> GETA co-founder Lisa Marchiano stated [[US 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 [[American College of Pediatricians]],<ref group="Note">Not to be confused with the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]].</ref> a small group aligned with the [[Christian Right]], has cited numerous studies from SEGM to support the claim that 'gender exploratory therapy' is necessary to restore transgender people's "biological integrity".<ref name="splc-defining-pseudoscience" />

==Effects and evaluation==
There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's [[sexual orientation]].<ref name=":0"/>

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 [[Major depressive disorder|depression]], [[substance abuse]], 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> 
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}}

Modern-day practitioners of conversion therapy—primarily from a conservative religious viewpoint—disagree with [[evidence-based medicine]] and clinical guidance that does not view [[homosexuality]] and [[gender variance]] as unnatural or unhealthy.{{sfn|Haldeman|2022|p=5}}<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}}

According to Bailey et al., claims of successful conversion therapy rely upon self reports of success, however these are unreliable and lack objective evidence, and participants in conversion therapy "may be especially susceptible to believing and reporting that therapy has succeeded regardless of its true effectiveness". According to Bailey et al. measures of men's genital arousal patterns could provide relevant evidence to the efficacy of conversion therapy, however existing studies have not supported its effectiveness. For example, a study by [[Kurt Freund]] used penile phallometric testing and found that clients’ reported changes in sexual orientation were not supported; and research by Conrad and Wincze (1976) showed that arousal measurements also failed to support claims of success.<ref name=":022">{{Cite journal |last1=Bailey |first1=J. Michael |last2=Vasey |first2=Paul L. |last3=Diamond |first3=Lisa M. |last4=Breedlove |first4=S. Marc |last5=Vilain |first5=Eric |last6=Epprecht |first6=Marc |date=25 April 2016 |title=Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science |journal=Psychological Science in the Public Interest |language=en-US |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=86 |doi=10.1177/1529100616637616 |issn=1529-1006 |pmid=27113562 |doi-access=free}}</ref> According to Bailey, although individuals may choose not to act upon their sexual attractions, "there is no good evidence, however, that sexual orientation can be changed with therapy".<ref name=":022" />

In 2020, [[ILGA|ILGA World]] published a world survey and report ''[[ILGA#Curbing Deception|Curbing Deception]]'' listing consequences and life-threatening effects by associating specific public testimonies with different types of methods used to practice conversion therapies.<ref name="ILGA2020"/>

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}}

A 2022 research by [[Outright International]] found out that half the respondents surveyed from [[Kenya]], [[Nigeria]] and [[South Africa]] had undergone some form of conversion practice. Some of the forms including force and [[coercion]], which inflict severe physical and mental pain and suffering.<ref>{{Cite web |title=When Conversion ‘Therapy’ Practices Amount to Torture, All African Governments Must Act {{!}} Outright International |url=https://outrightinternational.org/insights/when-conversion-therapy-practices-amount-torture-all-african-governments-must-act |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=outrightinternational.org |language=en}}</ref>

==Legal status==
{{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 as of January 2025:
{{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 [[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.<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>

Conversion therapy on minors may amount to [[child abuse]].<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>

===Human rights===
In 2020, the [[International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims]] 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 }}</ref> 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.<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 [[Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights]], 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 [[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,<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 [[European Parliament]] studying different approaches to legally ban "conversion therapies" in the [[European Union]].<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/ |access-date=2024-10-05 |website=BNN Bloomberg |language=en}}</ref> while a [[European Citizens' Initiative]] that started collecting signatures in May 2024 is also calling on the [[European Commission]] 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>

==In media==
Efforts to change sexual orientation have been depicted and discussed in popular culture and various media. Some examples include: ''[[Boy Erased]]'', ''[[The Miseducation of Cameron Post (film)|The Miseducation of Cameron Post]]'', [[The Book of Mormon (musical)|''Book of Mormon'' musical]], ''[[Ratched (TV series)|Ratched]]'', and the documentary features ''[[Pray Away]]'' and ''Homotherapy: A Religious Sickness''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-11-26 |title=" Homothérapies " sur Arte: le scandale des " conversions " sexuelles forcées |language=fr |work=Le Monde |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>

==Medical views==
{{main|Medical views of conversion therapy}}

National health organizations around the world have uniformly denounced and criticized sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts.<ref name=":3" /><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}}</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=[[United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy]] |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 }}</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 [[Hippocratic oath]] 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 |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 individuals' 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> A 2025 study completed by the [[American Medical Association]] found that 42% of those subjected to conversion therapy attempted suicide, compared to 5% of those not subjected to these practices.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/conversion-therapy-issue-brief.pdf|title=Sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (so-called “conversion therapy”)|website=American Medical Association|access-date=February 5, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.citybeat.com/contributor-news-2/why-families-of-faith-are-turning-to-conversion-truth-for-families-before-making-life-changing-decisions/|title=Why Families of Faith Are Turning to Conversion Truth for Families Before Making Life-Changing Decisions|website=City Beat|date=January 15, 2026|author=Tom White|access-date=February 5, 2026}}</ref> For transgender individuals in particular, exposure to conversion therapy before age 10 is associated with a fourfold increase in the risk of lifetime suicide attempts compared to peers who received other forms of therapy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/transgender-conversion-therapy-associated-severe-psychological-distress-n1052416|title=Transgender 'conversion therapy' associated with 'severe psychological distress'|website=NBC|date=September 11, 2019|author=Tim Fitzsimmons|access-date=February 5, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2749479|title=Association Between Recalled Exposure to Gender Identity Conversion Efforts and Psychological Distress and Suicide Attempts Among Transgender Adults|website=JAMA Psychiatry|date=September 11, 2019|author1=Jack L. Turban|author2=Noor Beckwith|author3=Sari L. Reisner|access-date=February 5, 2026}}</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>

==Public opinion==
Opinion polls have found that conversion therapy bans enjoy popular support among the U.S. population. Surveys in three states (Florida, [[New Mexico]] and [[Virginia]]) show support varying between 60% and 75%. According to a 2014 national poll, only 8% of the U.S. population believed conversion therapies to be successful.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mallory |first1=Christy |last2=Brown |first2=Taylor |last3=Conron |first3=Kerith |date=January 2018 |title=Conversion Therapy and LGBT Youth |url=https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Conversion-Therapy-LGBT-Youth-Jan-2018.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904165746/https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Conversion-Therapy-LGBT-Youth-Jan-2018.pdf |archive-date=4 September 2018 |access-date=1 June 2021 |publisher=The Williams Institute}}</ref>

A 2020 survey carried out on US adults found majority support for banning conversion therapy for minors. 18% of respondents said it should be legal for minors, 56% said it should be illegal for minors, and 26% said they did not know.<ref name=":6">{{cite journal |last1=Flores |first1=Andrew R. |last2=Mallory |first2=Christy |last3=Conron |first3=Kerith J. |date=2020 |title=Public attitudes about emergent issues in LGBTQ rights: Conversion therapy and religious refusals |journal=Research & Politics |volume=7 |issue=4 |page=205316802096687 |doi=10.1177/2053168020966874 |s2cid=229001894 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Reference page|location=Table 1}} The survey also found that LGB contact was positively associated with opposition to conversion therapy.<ref name=":6" />

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.<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 |url-status=live |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 |archive-date=30 June 2022 |access-date=30 June 2022 |website=[[YouGov]] |language=en-gb}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Christianity and homosexuality]]
* {{annotated link|Corrective rape}}
* {{annotated link|Recovering from Religion}}
* [[Sexual orientation change efforts and the LDS Church]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
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* {{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=[[Hitler's Prisons|Hitler's Prisons: Legal Terror in Nazi Germany]] |date=2015 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-22829-8 |language=en|orig-date=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=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |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=[[Columbia University Press]] |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 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{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}}

==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}}

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conversion Therapy}}
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