In Defense of Gay Conversion Therapy
(Photo by Jenny Mealling, creative commons attribution 2.0 generic licence)
Conversion therapy aims to turn gay people straight. I think that a persons sexuality is their own concern so my default position on conversion therapy is that if someone wants it, they should be able to get it. Many disagree with me and believe that conversion therapy is hateful, harmful, fraudulent and should be banned. Below I go through a few of the reasons behind these views and why I do and don't find them convincing.
1: Conversion therapy is dangerous.
Conversion therapy can lead to anxiety, depression, self-loathing and suicide. It is practiced by religious fanatics with a hatred of homosexuality who do not have their patients best interests at heart. I don't know how far these claims are true of conversion therapy as it exists now. I doubt they would be true of state provided, tightly regulated conversion therapy. Even if conversion therapy is inherently dangerous, as long as patients are made aware of the risks in advance it should be up to them to decide whether those risks outweigh the potential benefits.
2: Conversion Therapy Doesn't Work
I've found a few studies reporting that conversion therapy is effective and many papers claiming that there is a consensus on it's ineffectiveness. I don't know how far the methodology behind either set of papers is sound nor how far there exists a liberal bias among authors or editors which skews results. Most of all, it seems to me that even if conversion therapy as it is now is ineffective, it should be possible to develop somewhat effective versions which, even if they don't rid people of their desires, teaches common impulse control techniques to help better control them.
3: People don't really want conversion therapy
Those who undergo conversion therapy are forced into it by their family. They are coerced by the violence and discrimination they risk should they remain gay. People who want conversion therapy only want it because they have been brainwashed into thinking being gay is bad. I don't know what proportion of people undergoing conversion therapy are directly pressured into it by their family or friends, but I doubt it is a huge proportion or that it would be as significant were reasonable safeguards implemented. As for the threat of discrimination or violence, if someone wants to change their sexuality because not doing so invites violence and a worse life, that seems reasonable to me. Finally, brainwashing or the idea of false consciousness is something I have never been been willing to subscribe to. There are two ways this line of reasoning can go. The naive version is that people who don't want to be gay only feel that way because of their conservative upbringing or social conditioning. This is true, but it is also true of the vast majority of views most people hold. The fact that a person's beliefs or preferences are a product of their upbringing does not make them invalid or okay to ignore any more than it is okay to ignore political,moral or religious views merely because they are socially constructed. The better line of reasoning is that people who don't want to be gay only have this preference because of mistaken factual beliefs. They believe that being gay leads to mental illness and depravity, early death, a propensity to molest children, worse lives for any children around them or even that anything other than penile-vaginal sex is physically damaging to the body. These beliefs are factually wrong and so any opinion stemming from them can be safely ignored. Again there are a few reasons this doesn't sit well with me. One is that I don't we should ignore peoples beliefs when we think they are irrational or factually wrong. It's not immediately apparent what is true or not and it should, as far as possible, be up to individuals to decide for themselves what the truth is rather than up to the state or majority to determine for them. The other, stronger reason is that I don't think most people who want conversion therapy want it because of these mistaken factual beliefs. I'm very unsure in this, and I wish there was better research or polling on the motivations and beliefs of those seeking conversion therapy, but I think that most people who want to be straight have this preference for religious and moral reasons or because they want children and a traditional family.
4: Conversion Therapy Harms Others
The more widespread conversion therapy, the less gay people there are. The less gay people there are, the weaker the movement for gay acceptance/rights and the more those who stay gay suffer. Hence, we should ban conversion therapy. There are two reasons this argument fails to convince me. First, I doubt significant numbers of people would choose to undergo conversion therapy meaning that the practical effects on the gay rights movement should be minimal. Second, forcing people into a certain identity because it helps a political movement seems wrong. I wouldn't be okay with forcibly converting people to Islam to fight Islamaphobia, assuming a magic conversion pill existed. Likewise, changing the race of white people to black to help the black rights movement(s) seems to me to be evil. Just because someone is gay doesn't mean they have a greater obligation to help other gay people than the rest of us, Just as I wouldn't be comfortable forcing gay people to become straight, I am likewise uncomfortable with the reverse.
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