Survivors of conversion practices

Conversion 'therapy', also called 'reparative therapy' or 'gay cure' is an unethical and extremely harmful practice that assumes heterosexuality is the only 'natural' sexuality and being gay is 'wrong' and a 'lifestyle choice'. Or that being cisgender is the only “normal” gender and everything else is an illness that needs to be cured. Most modern version of conversion therapy may be called under different names, including 'spiritual guidance' and it coerces people in believing that their same-sex attraction or their gender identity is a result of childhood trauma and the therapy can change them to being heterosexual or cisgender.

All the major UK psychology and psychotherapy bodies have denounced the practice as unethical and harmful.However, it is not yet illegal in the UK so conversion therapy is thriving underground, mostly in religious settings but also in some clinical settings. Some of the unethical practice can be subtle, offer of false sense empathy, weaponising the language of therapy and introducing pseudo-science. In fact, it shouldn't be called 'therapy', it should be called conversion abuse.

Most people don't speak up about being a survivor of conversion therapy because of shame, but it is estimated that a large number of LGBTQ people have been offered and have gone through conversion therapy. It is thought that asexual people are at greater risk of being offered conversion practices by unduly pathologising their lack of sexual interest for a disorder and offering a treatment that forces them to be sexual. Also, the UK Government published a study showing that some people may be offered conversion practices through the pseudo-diagnosis of “sex addiction” by pathologising sexual behaviours and offeringtreatments to force their sexual behaviours to fit into some societal and religious “norms” of monogamy and being Vanilla. Gay men, people with a kink and fetish and people enjoying watching pornography are particularly vulnerable to be offered conversion practices through the “sex addiction” pseudo-diagnosis.

The body of research unanimously shows that conversion therapy does not work and it causes great psychological harm including:
• Depression
• Suicidal thoughts or/and suicidal attempts
• Self-harm
• Eating disorders
• Increase in shame
• Feeling bad about themselves and their sexuality
• Post-traumatic stress symptoms

If you are a survivor of conversion therapy, don't suffer in silence. Help is available.