The Pros And Cons Of Gay Conversion Therapy

Gay Conversion Therapy or “Reparative therapy” started as far back as 1981. Gay Conversion Therapy is a type of “therapy” that deals with converting an individual from homosexuality. “Advocates of "reparative therapy " employ a modified version of Judith Butler's "normative heterosexuality" discourse to "cure" gays and lesbians.”(Jeffrey A Bennett) A many of Therapist and psychologist have spoken out and have been very much against this therapy, but some therapist still does it. The therapy in itself is a very harmful practice, where they have not only given very spiteful and hurtful talks to the victims, but they also get very physical. These therapists have had children and teenagers in therapy strapped down, while they are strapped down

Some try to fix the damaged the therapy has done, but most end up not being able to fix it and their bond with their family ultimately gone. A bisexual and genderfluid young man, who went through the gay conversion therapy, said it was torture. The conversion therapy he went through lasted two years. They told him that his faith community rejected his sexuality, that he was the abomination they had learned and taught about in Sunday School, that he was the only gay person in the world, and that “inevitably” he would contract H.I.V. and AIDS. They said these spiteful and hurtful things all just to make him feel that he was wrong for being who he was, but sadly that isn’t all they did. The therapist made him watch videos of gay men hugging, kissing, and even having sex, while he had to watch all this the therapist ordered this young man to be bound on the table, where ice, heat, and electricity were put to his body. The therapist wanted him to associate the pain he was feeling to the images and videos to make him want to be a straight

This all happens to him when he was in middle school in the early 2000s. The young man is still bisexual and still gender fluid, and he also serves as apart of the head of government affairs of the Trevor Project, which is the largest suicide and crisis prevention for L.G.B.T Youth. The Trevor project group have announced so many news reports about gay conversion therapy, which says “700,000 adults have gone through gay conversion therapy at some point in their life and that 350,000 adults received it as children. Another study tells about 20,000 L.G.B.T teens will receive conversion therapy before the age of 18, and that 57,000 teenagers will receive it for religious or spiritual adviser before adulthood.”(Sam Brinton) He is also trying to fix things with his family, but he said that the bond he had with them will never be completely fixed. He is one of many people, who have come out about their stories of conversion therapy and it has harmed them. Though many of these individuals have come out with their stories on how they were harmed, when they had to go through it, only nine states so far have made it illegal in the United