Our Daily Wisdom Word today is conversion. Conversion is controversial to say the least. Some parents cannot accept the sexual preference their child is when they find out their child is “gay”. Conversion is a form of therapy used as a tool to revert their child to their assigned birth sex and is still legal in some states. As of the date of this post, 22 states still have no laws preventing “conversion or reparative therapy”.
How does conversion or reparative therapy work?
Conversion therapy is usually used when a family is part of a religious organization that does not accept a teenager or child’s sexual preference he or she identifies with. To be attracted to same-sex individuals is a violation of the religious beliefs of the parents enforced by their church or religious organization for a teen to be homosexual. I think it is important to note that the “American Psychiatric Association” opposes any psychiatric treatment used in an attempt to change an underaged individuals sexual orientation”. Religious organizations who do not accept homosexuality uses questionable practices that treat homosexuality as a mental disorder. Practitioners who work to change sexual orientation through therapy to be unethical. Now there are federal laws in place making it illegal to use some of the methods to change a child’s sexual orientation. In the past, the United States and Western Europe have allowed these practitioners to use “ice-pick lobotomies, chemical castrations, and hormonal therapies. In the past, there were no laws preventing these kind of practices which also includes electroshock therapy to the hands and genitals. A term coined as masturbatory reconditioning has also been used in many programs religious organizations such as fundamentalist Christian groups. To date, none of these therapies are shown to be in any way, effective in changing a person’s sexuality. In 2018, the European parliament banned conversion therapy practices in a majority vote of 435 to 109 for banning this kind of therapy and urged European Union members to pass the same law preventing this kind of therapy. There are many other countries who are without laws including the United Kingdom to outlaw conversion therapy.
As mentioned above, 22 states in the United States of America still have NO laws stopping or outlawing conversion therapy. You might find it interesting to know the past history of conversion therapy which started by Sigmund Freud who claimed he could change one’s sexuality to be “normal” through psychoanalysis. The first edition of the Psychological manual created in 1952 by the diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry, (DSM-1) considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder. In 1987, the DSM-3 was published removing homosexuality as a “mental disorder”.
Research shows today according to the American Psychiatric Association that reparative therapy is ineffective in changing one’s sexuality. Medical treatments are also shown to be ineffective in a study done in 2016. There is more and more repulsion of the practices medically and psychologically from leading medical experts and psychological efforts to change one’s sexual identity. This became more public when a Jewish organization based in New Jersey, (JONAH), used practices called “unconscionable”. Despite this, Conversion therapy continues to practiced today which often includes methods to change an individuals seuality in ways mentioned above.
In my opinion, parents, should not be parents if they are presented with the sexual orientation of their child, and they cannot accept their own child as he/she is. I do not believe they should be parents if they cannot accept the characteristics of their child’s sexuality. They are forgetting the child already struggles with societies opinion of themselves. Being a parent means accepting our child as they are despite our personal beliefs, especially with current research clearly stating these kinds of therapies are ineffective. We must not forget as parents we have the blessing of this individual being our child, and we need to as the very least, accept our children as they are and love them because of this difference, not in spite of their differences no matter what these differences are provided it does not physically or psychologically cause harm to others.