Conversion Therapy

The current Vice President-elect in the United States, Mike Pence, supports the use of conversion therapy for LGBT+ minors.

This conversion therapy includes the use of electrocution to shock people out of being LGBT+. This not only doesn’t work, it makes people think that they’re living sinfully. People don’t want to feel like what they’re doing is wrong; that’s just human nature. If we think we’re doing something wrong, we try to hide it from the rest of the world. Conversion therapy is just forcing more and more LGBT+ people to stay (or go back) in the closet.

Instead of providing conversion therapy, why not provide easy access to marriage, adoption, hormones, and transition materials so that people can be happy with themselves instead of hiding themselves? Statistically, people belonging to the LGBT+ community have a much higher suicide rate than those that don’t. This may be because they feel different or estranged from their heterosexual peers. Conversion therapy will just increase these rates.

When has forcing someone out of a fundamental part of who they are ever worked? Sure, I understand it from a psychological standpoint–it’s textbook classical conditioning–but it’s unethical and there have been no reputable studies that say it works. Therefore, conversion therapy should not be provided, because it leads to more deaths than actually providing easy access to things people in the LGBT+ community want/need, such as easy access to marriage, adoption, hormones, top surgery, bottom surgery, and countless other things. In my experience, only things where the benefits outweigh the risks have actually been helpful.