Conversion Therapy Cons
Throughout the majority of the United States, it’s currently legal to expose LGBT minors against their will to an extreme and intense type of therapy on the basis that homosexuality is a pathology that must be cured. This rightfully worrisome therapy is commonly referred to as conversion therapy. Conversion therapy, also referred to as reformative or reorientation therapy, is a wide variety of interventions implemented onto an individual who identifies as nonheterosexual with the goal of changing the individual’s sexuality to strictly heterosexual. Currently, only a measly six states listed as follows have laws banning conversion therapy on minors: Oregon, California, New Mexico, Vermont, Illinois, and New Jersey. Although America has made
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Cramer et al., a group of professors who all have a Ph.D. in psychology, explain these false assumptions in their piece by stating that conversion therapy is based on the idea that nonheterosexuality is pathological (94). In other words, any sexual orientation that isn’t heterosexual is an illness that needs to be cured which is incorrect. Homosexuality hasn’t been considered a disease by the medical community since 1973 (American Psychiatric Association). After reviewing empirical evidence, the APA took a vote and decided to remove homosexuality from the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) which is the complete manual for all psychiatric disorders that are officially recognized. Since homosexuality isn’t an illness, the foundation of conversion therapy is fictitious. Also, there isn’t any evidence that conversion therapy is effective making the therapy medically unnecessary. Moss, whose piece was published in the legal journal Family Court Review, claims there is no evidence that any variation of this type of therapy is effective since there is very little data existing on the subject and the studies that do exist have extreme validity errors (319-320). That is to say, there is no conclusive evidence that conversion therapy is successful or beneficial to patients who are subjected to it. Interventions that have no medical backing are subject to having unknown and unpredictable effects. Minors are an especially vulnerable group since the brain is still developing during these years. With this in mind, it’s completely reckless to subject a minor to an empirically inconclusive therapy. The lack of evidence and validity of conversion therapy alone should warrant a ban on the use of it on
Cramer et al., a group of professors who all have a Ph.D. in psychology, explain these false assumptions in their piece by stating that conversion therapy is based on the idea that nonheterosexuality is pathological (94). In other words, any sexual orientation that isn’t heterosexual is an illness that needs to be cured which is incorrect. Homosexuality hasn’t been considered a disease by the medical community since 1973 (American Psychiatric Association). After reviewing empirical evidence, the APA took a vote and decided to remove homosexuality from the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) which is the complete manual for all psychiatric disorders that are officially recognized. Since homosexuality isn’t an illness, the foundation of conversion therapy is fictitious. Also, there isn’t any evidence that conversion therapy is effective making the therapy medically unnecessary. Moss, whose piece was published in the legal journal Family Court Review, claims there is no evidence that any variation of this type of therapy is effective since there is very little data existing on the subject and the studies that do exist have extreme validity errors (319-320). That is to say, there is no conclusive evidence that conversion therapy is successful or beneficial to patients who are subjected to it. Interventions that have no medical backing are subject to having unknown and unpredictable effects. Minors are an especially vulnerable group since the brain is still developing during these years. With this in mind, it’s completely reckless to subject a minor to an empirically inconclusive therapy. The lack of evidence and validity of conversion therapy alone should warrant a ban on the use of it on