We Need To Talk About Gay Conversion Therapy

TL;DR

Evidence shows gay conversion therapy is largely ineffective and harmful, with a 75% increase in suicidal planning among participants.

Key Points

• 1.Gay conversion therapy has virtually no proven efficacy. A study of 1,600 Latter-day Saints members found only 3.1% reported any reduction in homosexual thoughts — meaning it failed for 97% of participants.
• 2.No rigorous clinical trials exist to support its effectiveness. All supporting studies are retrospective surveys with small samples, biased recruitment (e.g., ex-gay ministry communities), and serious methodological flaws — no randomized controlled trials have been conducted.
• 3.The documented harms are severe and well-evidenced. Studies link conversion therapy to increased depression, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, damaged relationships, and a 75% increase in suicidal planning — a key clinical risk factor for completed suicide.
• 4.Major medical bodies oppose it based on patient data. The American Psychiatric Association and American Medical Association both formally oppose conversion therapy, and their advocacy is driven by clinical evidence of harm rather than political ideology alone.
• 5.Homosexuality is not a pathology, which explains why treatment fails. Freud considered it a normal variant; same-sex behavior has been observed in over 500 species and is more common in evolutionarily primitive organisms, suggesting it is biologically baseline rather than aberrant.
• 6.The Supreme Court ruling overturned Colorado's ban using a free speech argument. A therapist successfully argued the state could not regulate speech in private sessions; the presenter, a psychiatrist, declines to judge the legal ruling but urges informed consent given the clinical evidence of harm.