Trending
- GLAAD’s Black Queer Creative Summit Returns to Los Angeles for a Powerful Second Year
- The GLAAD Wrap: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ ‘After the Hunt’ and ‘Fairyland’ in theaters, trailers for ‘I Love LA’ ‘All’s Fair,’ and more!
- RECAP: Supreme Court to Rule on Protections Against Discredited and Unsafe Conversion “Therapy” Practices on LGBTQ Youth
- We All Could Use Some Queer Joy! Be a Part of The Skin Deep + GLAAD’s New Collab
- Facts and Action for Banned Books Week
- Write It Out! Launches Annual Campaign to Uplift People Living with HIV Through Playwriting
- GLAAD Gaming Announces New Queer Emerging Developers Program
- Finding Yourself Begins With Celebrating Others’ Differences
“Variations in sexual orientation and gender expression represent normal and expectable dimensions of human development.” — American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Conversion “therapy” refers to harmful and discredited practices of attempting to change an LGBTQ person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Purveyors of these dangerous practices falsely claim that LGBTQ identities are not real, and that LGBTQ people can be “cured” through psychological or religious intervention.
All major medical, psychiatric, and psychological organizations have condemned conversion “therapy,” and the United Nations has compared it to “torture.” Accordingly, it has been widely outlawed globally and across the U.S. As noted by Born Perfect: “Few practices hurt LGBTQ [people] more than attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through conversion therapy, which can cause depression, substance abuse, and even suicide.”
While “conversion therapy” is the most well-known term, its purveyors use many alternate phrases (e.g. “unwanted same-sex attraction,” “leaving homosexuality”) to promote these practices online and off. To help illuminate a better understanding of these phrases, see the expansive sidebar list. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism has documented that the profit-driven promotion of conversion “therapy” remains widespread across Google, other search engines, and social media platforms.
Additional Resources
If you or someone you know has been targeted with “conversion therapy,” here are a few resources to help and support you or to learn more about this topic.
- Movement Advancement Project: Talking About Conversion “Therapy” Practices
- Born Perfect: Toolkit for “Conversion Therapy” Survivors
- The Trevor Project: So-Called “Conversion Therapy” and LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health
- Human Rights Campaign: The Lies and Dangers of Efforts to Change Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity
- GLAAD Media Reference Guide – In Focus: “Conversion therapy”
- GLAAD’s Online Anti-LGBTQ Hate Terms Defined: “Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction”
Alternate Phrases for “Conversion Therapy”
- achieving heterosexuality
- become heterosexual/straight
- corrective care
- cure homosexuality/same-sex attraction
- delivered/deliverance from homosexuality or same-sex attraction
- ex gay therapy
- ex homosexual, ex lesbian, ex LGBT, ex trans
- former gay, former lesbian, former LGBT, former trans
- free from homosexuality/same-sex attraction
- freedom from homosexuality/same-sex attraction
- gay cure
- gay to straight
- gender confusion
- gender exploratory/exploration therapy
- heal from homosexuality/same-sex attraction
- homosexual confusion
- leave homosexuality/same-sex attraction
- leave pride behind
- overcome homosexuality/same-sex attraction
- overcomers
- positive alternatives to homosexuality
- reintegrative therapy, reorientation therapy
- reparative therapy
- sexual attraction fluidity exploration in therapy
- sexual brokenness
- sexual orientation change
- sexual reorientation therapy
- struggling with homosexuality/same-sex attraction
- turn straight
- unwanted same-sex attraction/homosexuality/gender identity issues
