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Homosexuality is an illness that therapists can and should cure: that’s the rationale for “conversion therapy”, a practice promoted as a way to change an individual’s sexual orientation from gay to straight.
But a host of studies conclude that such counseling doesn’t work – small wonder, since sexual orientation is a core part of an individual’s identity. It’s also potentially harmful, especially for minors. Research shows that youth subjected to conversion practices, often at the insistence of misguided parents, are prone to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness and suicide.
Until recently, this medieval practice seemed destined for the dustbin of discredited psychological theories. National mental health associations have recommended that the practice be prohibited, because it’s based on the homophobic “assumption that diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are mental illnesses”, as the American Psychiatric Association puts it. Twenty-three states have banned it for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
Now, however, it is making a comeback.
This term, the US supreme court will decide whether a law prohibiting conversion practices infringes on constitutionally protected free speech. During last month’s oral argument in that case, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned whether the regulation wasn’t “just the functional equivalent” of another recent supreme court case. In June, the court upheld a ban on a different treatment – puberty blockers and hormone therapy for trans youth. “It just seems odd to me that we might have a different result here,” she said. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, meanwhile, likened conversion therapy to a dietitian telling a client to do something physically harmful, saying: “I don’t think the state has to provide a study to show that the advice is not sound.”
Nonetheless, comments from the bench during that argument indicate that the rightwing majority will strike down these laws. Anguished survivors fear the disastrous consequences of such a ruling. They’re speaking out on social media.
“I was sent to conversion therapy against my will. I endured it for six months. I was a shell of a person after, and almost took my own life … I feel compelled to plead that we cannot accept this,” one survivor wrote, according to Cosmopolitan. “Seeing what’s coming from the supreme court really terrifies me,” said another. “I’m fearful for younger generations that could be subjected to this.”
By attempting to brainwash gay youth into becoming “normal”, conversion practices promotes Donald Trump’s war on the LGBTQ+ community. That explains why, relying on junk science, a Department of Health and Human Services report issued last spring appeared to support the practice.
During his New York City days, the president voiced support for LGBTQ+ rights. Since then, however, he has become the arch-antagonist. Attacking trans people has proven a surefire winner for the Maga crowd. An executive order, issued only hours after he was sworn in, mandates that passports recognize only two sexes, male and female. That edict upends the lives of an estimated 1.3 million adults who identify as trans or gender non-conforming.
Trump has also brought his gay-bashing campaign to the schoolhouse. “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” an executive order issued his second day in the White House, prohibits federal funding for schools that introduce “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology” in the classroom. That vague language has made teachers petrified to say anything about trans individuals.
Trump’s yes men are doing their best to drive gay people into the closet. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has banned trans individuals from serving in the military, and that’s likely to be just the start of his witch-hunt. Hegseth has suggested that allowing gay people to serve openly in the armed forces prioritizes social justice over unit cohesion and military readiness – a claim for which there isn’t a scintilla of evidence. He renamed the USNS Harvey Milk, which honored the gay rights icon and navy veteran, timing the move – intentionally, according to a military.com report – during Pride month.
At the FBI, a longtime employee says he was fired for having had a rainbow flag on his desk. . The administration has moved to cut more than $800m in research grants including on LGBTQ+ health, claiming that the studies led to “unscientific” results that ignore “biological realities”. The federally-funded 988 suicide and crisis hotline ended its services for LGBTQ+ youth, apparently because it promotes “radical gender ideology”. How heartless can you get?
There’s no end of targets for the bully in the White House to slap around. You can include the LGBTQ+ community on the roster of groups – immigrants, religious and ethnic minorities, African Americans, women, disabled and low-income individuals – that are already feeling the lash of a president who seems hellbent on turning the nation into an autocracy. Doubtlessly, there’s more and worse to come.
Ben Franklin nailed it: “We must all hang together or we will all hang separately.” Although resisting the Trump juggernaut is an uphill battle, these groups need to join forces in a groundswell of protest – No Kings indeed.
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David Kirp is professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley and a frequent Guardian contributor.
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In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
