Emilee Wideman

ENC 2135
Brandi Bradley
Conversion Therapy
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, more commonly known as
LGBT, has been around for centuries. For as long as it has been around, the community has
struggled to be accepted by society and in order to do that, some have turned to conversion
therapy for help. It was a small community long ago when it was unheard of for someone to have
feelings for another person of the same gender. Over the centuries the LGBT community has
grown tremendously and has made a ton of progress to be seen as equals to everyone in all
aspects. One of the biggest accomplishments was getting laws passed to be able to marry
someone of the same sex throughout the entire United States just last year. It wasnt until the end
of 1983 that the LGBT Community Center was founded. The LGBT community is a very large
but tight knit community throughout the world. Throughout the decades, the LGBT community
has faced numerous issues including marriage equality, quality of life laws, homelessness, and
huge safety and violence issues. Out of the many issues within the LGBT community, sexual
orientation conversion therapy, also known as reparative therapy, is a prominent one.
Those within the LGBT community feel conversion therapy is appalling. Ryan Kendall, a
National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) contributor, explained his experience in conversion
therapy as psychological abuse that I endured at the hands of mental health professionals who
tried to change my sexual orientation, (NCLR). They see it as something that has life long
damaging effects on their friends and family with in the community. Multiple LGBT
organizations, such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the LGBT Community Center,

are working to put laws in place to prevent the practice of sexual orientation change efforts.
Their main focus for now is getting it ban for minors. #BornPerfect: The Campaign to End
Conversion Therapy, has a goal to [pass] laws across the country to protect LGBT children and
young people, (NCLR) within the next five years as of June 2014. Minors are the primary target
in these practices normally because they are forced into these therapies by their parents of legal
guardians. Having conversion therapy ban laws in place would be a huge step forward in the
LGBT community because it would greatly improve the mental health and wellness in the future
generations. On the same side, some think that making conversion therapy illegal will just create
an underground ring of the practice. Those in the community on this side fear that if the practice
does go underground, it will become worse and more harmful to those who are made to endure it
and have even worse long term effects. Christopher J. Ferguson wrote an article in TIME
magazine about how banning conversion therapy can be more harmful than helpful. He says,
banning it may simply drive it underground, where it wont even be subject to state regulation
or limited to therapists who are licensed. Those who believe this think it should be heavily
regulated instead of banned in order to keep the practice under control.
Those who are not a part of the community have mixed views on this subject. If a
religious, conservative was to be asked their stance on conversion therapy, they are more likely
to think the practice is helpful and needed than someone who is liberal and non-religious. Those
who are not in the community use the web to communicate their feelings on the subject. They
create websites that describe their stance on the issue. The websites usually contain the
informative and persuasive genres. They want to inform their reader either of the pros or the
cons, depending on what stand point they have, of conversion therapy. Persuading the reader is a
huge part of the website. They want to convince the reader that what they are saying is right so

that they will either vote for or against the bill in their state. Both sides use ethos in their
websites. They show they have authority by using research done by doctors and experts on the
subject so that the reader will trust what they are reading.
In the late 1800s, a book titled Psychopathia Sexualis was written by Richard van KrafftEbing. The book listed many reasons on how homosexuality could be to blame for most of the
criminals who committed sex crimes at that time. This book was the backbone of hatred for the
LGBT community and is the reason homosexuality was classified as a criminal behavior. It gave
the world a real reason to hate those who were anything but heterosexual. On the opposite end of
the spectrum, Havelock Ellis wrote a book ten years later titled Sexual Inversion. This books
argument against Krafft-Ebing was that homosexuality was a trait that was inborn and couldnt
be changed. Ellis also believed that it was wrong to look down on those who were attracted to
the same sex. He pointed out how many artists and well-known people who had made large
contributions to the world were homosexual. A big name supporter of the LGBT community at
this time was Sigmund Freud. In a well-known and highly quoted letter Freud wrote to a worried
parent of a gay son, he said, It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime and
cruelty too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis. For as much credibility
and ethos that Freud had, many people did not take his side on this issue. People continued to
take Krafft-Ebings side on this issue even though in his last years, his stance on the LGBT issue
changed. He agreed with Havelock and thought homosexuality should be declassified as a
criminal behavior in his home country, Germany. Though these major names in medical and
psychological history believed homosexuality should be perceived as a social norm, it wasnt and
so began the journey to cure homosexuality.

In todays world, every leader in the medical and mental health professions, including but
not limited to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association for Marriage and
Family Therapy, the American Medical Association and the National Association of Social
Workers, have agreed that homosexuality is not a disease someone can catch and it can not and
should not be cured. The Human Rights Campaign website lists multiple statements from
organizations stating their positions on conversion therapy. This list includes all the organizations
listed earlier and many more. These associations, and more, have all made statements
condemning the practice of sexual orientation change efforts (SOCEs) saying there is no data
showing that conversion therapies are effective to those who go through it and that the practice
lacks medical justification.
Christopher Doyle is a writer for the Christian Post. He is a happily married man of over
six years. Doyle struggled with same-sex attraction growing up. He fought these feelings as a
teen because they didnt fit his picture of the perfect life he wanted but he was unsuccessful in
ridding himself of them. After a while he decided to try sexual orientation conversion therapy.
Doyle is a success story of conversion therapy. He went through what he explains as talk therapy.
He had issues with his same-sex attraction and brought these issues to therapy where they talked
them out until his feelings had finally disappeared. Today, Doyle is an activist for conversion
therapy and strongly recommends it to anyone with similar struggles. Though Doyle believes in
conversion therapy, he doesnt believe being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender is wrong. He
believes that everyone should live according to their own values, and for him, being gay isnt
something he wanted for himself. He has not relapsed, or had same-sex attraction feelings, in
eight and a half years. He doesnt care who bashes him as long as he can get his story out there
so people can see the good aspects of conversion therapy that arent shown in the media.

Another article Doyle wrote was about an episode of Criminal Minds, a show about the
FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) working to put away serial killers across the nation. In this
episode entitled Broken, the BAU follows a serial killer committing a series of sex crimes
ending in murder. They discover the reason for the killings was the conversion therapy the man
had gone through as a child. He was taught that acting on his same-sex attraction was wrong and
this is why he began killing. Doyle explains how CBS portrays the therapists and places seeking
to help those with unwanted same-sex attraction to be child abusing religious cults, capitalizing
on the fears of homophobic parents who have gay children. He also explains how he believes
that CBS is out to influence the public opinion about conversion therapy and that it was aired
while the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was in the process of ruling on the legality of SOCE
therapy for minors in the state of California. He believes that the episode was meant to sway
voters on the side against conversion therapy, even though it has been proven to work. Doyle is
determined to set straight the facts about conversion therapy, and he is doing just that by writing
articles on conversion therapy and its progress.
The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), was
founded in 1992 by Joseph Nicolosi, Benjamin Kaufman, and Charles Socarides. NARTH is a
non-profit institute that allows clients to claim a gay identity, or to diminish their homosexuality
and to develop their heterosexual potential, according to their mission statement on their official
website. In an article written on the NARTH website, it is explained how being LGBT is not the
way people are born. A few studies in America, Australia, and Scandinavia were focused on
identical twins. The studies show that identical twins have exactly the same DNA, so everything
genetic about them is virtually identical. So when one twin is gay and the other is not, it proves
that genetics dont play a factor in their sexual orientation, its what happens to each individually

after they are born that determines their sexuality. After determining gays are not actually born
gay, Dr. Neil Whitehead, the person behind the study, believes sexuality is not something you are
stuck with. These changes are not therapeutically induced, but happen naturally in life, some
very quickly, Whitehead is quoted saying in the article. Its even said that the number of people
who have successfully changed sexual orientation is higher than the number of bisexuals and
homosexuals combined.
Those who are pro conversion therapy have been written off as crazy or homophobes but
insist that the therapy is useful. If a person wants to be gay, and thinks he is gay, then thats
perfectly fine I want to be available for those who want to change, said Nicolosi in an article
on the NBC News website. One of Nicolosis former peers, David Pickup, struggled with samesex attraction feelings. He believed these feelings stemmed from being molested several times
when he was five. Because of this Pickup underwent conversion therapy that ended with success.
I had challenges with homosexual feelings but never identified being gay, said Pickup in the
NBC News article. For Pickup, therapy was helpful in diminishing his homosexual feelings. His
therapy was based on talking he said. Unlike other treatments where patients are hypnotized or
shocked, Pickup talked though his unwanted feelings and issues. Today, pickup works along side
Nicolosi as a therapist at NARTH and says this is the therapeutic technique NARTH uses with its
clients.
This is a side to conversion therapy that is often hidden from the media or is discredited.
Its discredited by people saying you can never change your true sexual orientation, you can only
suppress it, or by websites that are anti-conversion therapy. Within the past few years, very few
states, including California (2012), New Jersey (2013), and Washington, D.C. (2014) have put in
place laws banning conversion therapy practices for minors. In a position statement released by

the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses (ISPN), the success rate for
conversion therapy is 11% for completely changed females and 37% for completely changes
males. Even though ISPN admits to conversion therapy being successful in changing some
patients sexual orientations from homosexual to completely heterosexual, it strongly opposes the
practice of it all together.
On the opposition, #BornPerfect is a campaign to raise awareness on the harmful effects
that sexual orientation conversion therapy can have on LGBT youth and to make laws to ban it.
Some of the older techniques of conversion therapy were excessive bicycling,
institutionalization, castration, being prescribed drugs such as cocaine, transplants, and
electroconvulsive shock therapy. These techniques arent used as much today as they used to be.
The most common techniques used today are induced nausea, vomiting, or paralysis while being
shown homoerotic images or films, shaming, prayer, hypnosis, orgasmic reconditioning, or being
made to snap a rubber band on the wrist when being aroused by homoerotic images. These have
all led to long lasting psychological effects on the patients such depression, anxiety, continued
drug use or withdrawals, homelessness, and the worst effect, suicide.
In the 1970s, psychologist George Rekers attempted to cure a five-year-old boy of the
stereotypically feminine behaviors he was showing at home. Rekers told the boys parents to use
a reward-punishment system with him at home. They were to reward the boy when he showed
masculine behaviors such as playing with trucks or to punish him by ignoring him or even
spanking him when he showed feminine behaviors like wanting to play with dolls. Rekers later
released a statement claiming this as a success even though the boy never changed his
homosexual orientation. These treatments continued to largely effect the boys life into
adulthood. He had attempted suicide at age 17 and eventually committed suicide at age 38.

Six weeks and Ill make you straight. Guaranteed. Thats what Mathew Shurka was
told when he was going into conversion therapy at 16. Shurka was forced into therapy after
letting his dad know his dad know about his secret feelings for another boy. When Shurka began
therapy he was ban from coming in contact with any woman, including his mom and two older
sisters, because they did not want to take the chance of their femininity rubbing off on him. The
only people he was allowed to spend time with and talk to were men. Under his therapists orders
he hung out with guys, including the boy he had a growing crush on only to make him more
confused about his homosexual feelings. After leaving this therapist who promised to turn him
straight, Shurka entered a deep depression. It wasnt until the age of 23, seven years after Shurka
entered therapy, that he was able to confidently say: Im a gay man. Today, Shurka is the leader
of an anti-conversion movement and hopes to have conversion therapy completely outlawed by
the year 2019.
Michael Bussee is the founder of Exodus International, an organization that promotes
conversion therapy. He was married, a father of one, and someone who had same-sex attraction
feelings. Exodus International began as a small bible study group for Christians who had samesex attraction called EXIT in hopes that their faith would help eliminate their unwanted feelings.
Throughout Bussees journey to rid himself of these unwanted feelings, he found himself falling
in love with another man for the first time. In time, both filed for divorce and moved in together.
Bussee said that within the 40 years that created Exodus, he had never met anyone who had truly
gone from gay to straight. He had met men who got married and said they were happy but they
also admitted that their same-sex attraction had never completely gone away.
This issue has been prevalent in the LGBT community for years. Finding a solution that
both sides see as a win may be very difficult. Each side is strong in their belief and does their

best to have strong background knowledge on why each side is the right side to choose. Though
it may be difficult, a solution can be found. One possible solution is to have heavy state rules and
regulations regarding sexual orientation conversion therapy. This will appease both sides by
getting the harsh and harmful techniques outlawed, like electric shock and having induced
vomiting, nausea, or paralysis while being shown homoerotic images or films, but also allowing
the practice to continue and grow hopefully using talk therapy and nothing physical. Getting the
state involved with monitoring and regulating these issues and therapeutic techniques will keep
practitioners from overstepping boundaries in their practices. It will help keep long term effects
at a minimum by keeping their methods and techniques under close watch.
Another solution would be to outlaw the practice for minors unless it is the minors
choice to endure the therapy. Though children arent seen as being mature enough to make their
own decisions until they are 18 years old in the eyes of the law, all children know if they are or
are not meant to be gay. If a minor strongly believes the feelings they have are not natural, they
should be able to make the choice if they endure conversion therapy. Those who believe they are
gay and want to be gay, shall have the choice of not having to endure conversion therapy. This is
a decision that would be better made in the hands of the person dealing with same-sex attraction,
not the parents.
Conversion therapy has been around as long as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender
people have been around. The LGBT community has been actively trying to bring an end to it
while those who believe in the practice have been struggling to get out from under all the
scrutiny the LGBT community has brought upon it. This is an issue that needs to be focused on
and solved. Everyone has a different side to conversion therapy; some are great but some are just
plain horror stories. In either case, the experience is life changing. It can be for the better or for

the worst because everyones experience is different. Regulating the practice and making the
therapy voluntary for those who go through it will be beneficial to everyone involved. Though
the entire LGBT community may not see it as a total victory because the practice would
continue, it should be counted as a win. They will have control over whether or not they must
endure the therapy and how long they will endure it for. Those who believe in the practice may
see this solution as a set back but the practice will continue and maybe they will be able to find
better evidence to support their theory on the fact that conversion therapy can work for everyone.

Works Cited Page

#BornPerfect: The Facts About Conversion Therapy. National Center for
Lesbian Rights. 2016. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
11 Ridiculous, Strange, And Terrifying Gay Conversion Therapy Methods for
Curing

Homosexuality. 2. The Huffington Post. 1 November 2011.

Web. 16 February 2016.

"Homosexuality." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2015.
Opposing

Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

Bussee, Michael. #BornPerfect Michael Bussee. National Center for

Lesbian Rights. n.p. n.d. Web. 15 Feb 2016
Doyle, Christopher. The Ex-Gay Problem: You Can Never Leave? The
Christian Post. n.p. 27 February 2013. Web. 14 February 2016
Gay Born That Way? NARTH Institute. 15 February 2016
Kale, Sirin. New York Bans Gay Conversion Therapy. Dazed. 8 Feb. 2016.
Web. 15 Feb. 2016
Raferty, Isolde. Therapists defend gay conversion counseling: You cant say
gay once, gay always NBC News. 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2016
International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses (ISPN). Position
Statement on Reparative Therapy. 2008. PDF file.
Doyle, Christopher. CBS Criminal Minds Offends by Linking Conversion