Why Should Conversion Therapy Be Illegal? A Clinical Psychology Podcast Episode.
Conversion therapy is aimed at making gay people straight and transgender individuals to cisgender. There is no science behind these cruel, manipulative and torturous forms of so-called corrective therapy and there is a lot of empirical evidence showing the psychological harm these “conversion therapies” inflict on people. However, conversion therapy is perfectly legal in lots of countries around the world. Even in the United Kingdom, conversion therapy is legal and each time a government pledges to outlaw it, they backtrack or add in disgusting loopholes. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn why should conversion therapy be illegal, what harm does conversion therapy cause and so many more fascinating (if not heartbreaking) facts. If you enjoy learning about LGBT+ psychology, mental health and psychotherapy then this will be a brilliant episode for you.
Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Friendships, Romantic Relationships and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Why Should Conversion Therapy Be Illegal?
Sometimes conversion therapy is called the “gay cure” or “reparative therapy”, but whatever it is called, these so-called conversion “therapies” are all extremely harmful practices that assume that cisgender heterosexuality is the only natural way to be. That is completely wrong because homosexuality is found in over 1,500 species and homophobia is only found in humans so the data clearly shows that homophobia is unnatural and homosexuality is normal and natural.
Anyway, conversion therapy assumes that being gay, transgender or bisexual is a disorder that goes against nature. Typically, the people who endorse conversion therapy are usually highly religious and they believe that conversion therapy offers LGBT+ individuals a path towards freedom and God. Since according to these people, God intended people to be heterosexual, to marry and have children.
In reality, homosexuals can have children, marry and be happy. I am not religious but I have always interpreted God’s Christian teachings as he wants people to be happy, love thee neighbour and be morally good. Supporting LGBT+ people is loving thee neighbour and being whoever you want is a part of being happy that is what God wants.
In addition, what actually happens in conversion therapy varies from so-called practitioner to practitioner. In the most extreme cases, conversion therapy is a literal violent “exorcism” where the religious preacher wants to expel the gay demon from the person. Equally, conversion therapy can involve erotic or sexual aversion therapy so whenever a guy gets aroused by looking at a sexual or erotic image of another guy then they get an electric shock. As well as there are more subtle and insidious forms of conversion therapy that look like a legitimate therapy but actually, conversion therapy always represents pseudo-science.
In these types of situations, the conversion therapist will appear curious, genuinely want to help and they will be empathic. Yet their line of subtle questions has nothing to do with affirmative or curious therapeutic exploration, like in any real therapies. Instead, the conversion therapist will ask questions designed to confirm their own assumptions that being gay is a mental disorder created by childhood trauma. This leads the conversion therapist to force clients to believe that they are only gay because of a cold mother, a distant father, a car crash, sexual abuse or their parents getting divorced at a young age. Basically, a conversion therapist will use anything they possibly can to convince the innocent LGBT+ person that being gay isn’t natural and it is not who they are.
What really annoys me and makes me angry at conversion therapists is that when an innocent LGBT+ client opens up about their life and their childhood, they are trusting the conversion therapist so much with their inner, most darkest secrets and fears and life events. Then the conversion therapist betrays that trust by manipulating, abusing and making a mockery of the client’s life events by indoctrinating the client into the idea that they are broken, damaged and diseased for being gay.
Something that is flat out disgusting is that conversion therapy is thriving in the United Kingdom, the United States and other “modern and liberal countries” that paint themselves as safe havens for LGBT+ people. These conversion therapies harm LGBT+ people every single day and it is outrageous that they are legal in the UK. Especially, as previous governments kept talking about banning conversion therapy.
This is even more outrageous when we consider the literature clearly shows that conversion therapy does not work and instead it only causes LGBT+ people intense psychological harm. It increases rates of depression, eating disorders, self-hatred, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, hatred of their own sexuality and suicide amongst LGBT+ survivors. Conversion therapy is killing people.
Moreover, in the United Kingdom, all major psychotherapy and psychology regulating bodies have signed the Memorandum of Understanding that shows they agree that conversion therapy is unethical and no clinicians in the UK should promote or offer it. Yet conversion therapy is legal to perform in the UK. It was back in 2018 when the UK Government made a promise to outlaw conversion therapy but in 2025, it is still legal because the law efforts have stalled so badly. Mainly, because whenever a government wants to outlaw conversion therapy, there are always discussions of adding loopholes into the legislation. More specifically, politicians want there to be a religious loophole which makes all efforts to ban conversion therapy useless. Since the vast majority of conversion therapy happens in religious settings or the therapists are highly religious, so if you make conversion therapy only legal to practice because of the therapist’s religion then absolutely nothing changes.
There’s a lot that is disgusting about the idea of loopholes but once again, it shows that LGBT+ people will always be second-class citizens compared to the status quo that religion provides society. We have the science and we have the data so we know that conversion therapy is causing immense psychological harm to innocent people, and yet no one cares in Government.
Personally, and I understand I am being very pessimistic here, but I don’t think the UK Government will outlaw conversion therapy. If they do it at all, it will not be done before the mid-2030s. I want to be wrong but I don’t think I am. One of the reasons is because sadly, there is resistance from even non-religious groups about a ban on conversion therapy. Some groups sadly believe that banning conversion therapy will mean real therapists will not be able to help clients who are questioning their sexuality or gender identity. I don’t understand how because the difference is clear to me, but in psychotherapy and counselling, there has always been a clear difference between affirmative exploration and manipulation.
It is okay to affirmatively explore how a client is currently feeling and thinking about their own experiences. Be this something at work, school or in a stressful situation or when it comes to their sexuality and gender identity. All real counsellors and psychotherapists work with clients with the goal of helping them make sense as well as find meaning in their own experiences in a compassionate, non-judgemental and empathetic way. Yet this is very different from exploring a client’s trauma for the purpose of manipulating them and convincing the client that they are broken, diseased and fundamentally wrong.
The latter is what conversion therapy aims to do.
Clinical Psychology Conclusion
Ultimately, I flat out hate conversion therapy and it is a disgusting stain on society, psychology and everything as aspiring or qualified psychologists want to achieve. Therefore, I really hope in the future in the UK and globally, there will be a total ban on conversion therapy without a single loophole. Yet I think if this happens at all, it will take at least another decade if not more, and this is just a reflection of the heartbreaking, outrageous hate and moral panic that politicians, haters and the media weaponise against LGBT+ people in UK and global society.
And this is a much darker reflection of the uncomfortable truth that there are those in our amazing psychological profession that do not seek to decrease psychological distress, improve lives and give clients better ways to cope with life’s stressors. Instead, they seek to abuse, manipulate and put people through torture with the label of therapy on it.
This is disgusting and this has to end no matter what.
I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Psychology of Relationships: The Social Psychology of Friendships, Romantic Relationships and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading
Behrens, P. (2023). False Therapy, Real Harm: Aspects of Conversion Practices and Their Evaluation. In Justice After Stonewall (pp. 248-264). Routledge.
Behrens, P. (2023). False Therapy, Real Harm: Aspects of Conversion Practices and Their Evaluation. In Justice After Stonewall (pp. 248-264). Routledge.
Harrell, B. (2022, October). Conversion therapy bans, suicidality, and mental health. In Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) 2022 Fall Research Conference, Washington, DC:, Nov (pp. 17-19).
Higbee, M., Wright, E. R., & Roemerman, R. M. (2022). Conversion therapy in the Southern United States: Prevalence and experiences of the survivors. Journal of homosexuality, 69(4), 612-631.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/talking-sex-and-relationships/202111/why-conversion-therapy-should-be-illegal
Jones, T. W., Power, J., & Jones, T. M. (2022). Religious trauma and moral injury from LGBTQA+ conversion practices. Social Science & Medicine, 305, 115040.
Ludwig, C. (2016). Conversion therapy, its detrimental consequences, and its place in the national spotlight. Rutgers JL & Religion, 18, 121.
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