Conversion therapy is a treatment directed to change a persons sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. The American Psychiatric Association(APA) disapproves of the treatment given that people believe and see it as a mental disorder. They feel that trying to change a persons homosexual orientation is considered to be unethical. Debates are held on how it is highly likely for a homosexual to cause self harm giving that they are made to see themselves as being wrong. The APA feels as if the solution for this should be instead of a change in someones orientation, there should be a change in the way society views it.
A persons sexual orientation is not caused by who they are around or raised by. Many heterosexual people are against
You may just consider it as normal giving that you yourself are and you have absolutely no want to be with a person of the same sex. That thats the way God made it to be, Adam and Eve, man and women, but a person does not simply choose to be one way or another. Scientists don’t know what exactly the cause is for a person to become homosexual just as they are not sure what causes a person to become heterosexual. Homosexuality has been studied with groups of both identical and fraternal twins and found evidence that genetics play a role. Results have shown that the closer the genetic makeup of the two, when one was homosexual, the other would also be. What would be the odds that most identical twins would have the same sexual orientation? Commonly you are able to pick out gay children from early as the age 6 by their feminine actions, such as the way they walk or talk. This is not always the case but it is likely. Most kids are not even aware of what this term means, so how would they have a choice? They just live as they see themselves and who they are, not knowing that later they may find themselves to act or like the same sex. I myself is homosexual, and i know for a fact that i would not choose this if i had a choice from the start. Ive always been the type of kid who didn 't want to stand out to everyone, just wanted to blend in and get by like everyone else. The last thing i wanted was to be seen differently and have people judge. My freshman year i came to the fact that i had been attracted to girls rather than guys. As I looked back at my previous years, it had all made since. I remember watching movies as young as a fifth-grader and wanting to always be the guy figure in a relationship, but at the time i didn 't understand why. Also i had always preferred to hang around guys, whether we would
Homosexuality is increasing in number in today’s society due to a number of situations that people have gone through. There is even the existence of people saying they were born this way, as in the song by Lady Gaga. One may also have some people going, as far as to claim they knew there was something different about them all along. Is there the possibility of a link between traumatizing situations in someone’s life to the point where they “become” homosexual? Could the possibility of a traumatic experience from past adolescence, affect them this greatly?
Even though these practices have hurt, or even killed some of their “patients,” there are still some survivors, and journalists that have proven that conversion therapy does not work.
Most scientists and psychologists believe that homosexuality is caused by a gene determined at birth much like your hair, skin, and eye color are determined, meaning homosexuality is not a choice and is no more a choice than choosing your skin color. Studies known as adoption studies show that sexual preference is genetic by adopting a young infant child and placing them in either a homosexual or h...
People that’ve gone through conversion therapy tell stories about things they went through. Something therapists do is force people to watch heterosexual porn. Therapists believe that watching porn will make men attracted to women while it will make women attracted to men (A Survivor Of Gay Conversion Therapy Shares His Chilling Story, 2016). Another method therapists use is force people to pray the gay away. One man named Paul Southwick wrote about how he tried to pray the gay away but all that did was make him hate himself be felt like wasn’t trying hard enough. Some therapist give their patients electric shocks while showing them homoerotic images. This leads to patients associating homosexuals with pain (A Survivor Of Gay Conversion Therapy Shares His Chilling Story, 2016). Conversion therapy can last for years. This mean that patients are subject to abuse for years. Conversion therapy is extremely harmful. People learn to associate homosexuality with pain and that leads to them hating homosexuals and themselves. It is also very traumatizing. People that have served conversion therapy say they still feel the harmful effects years
Scientists in fields connected to neurobiology and psychiatry remain mystified about the cause of Conversion Disorder. The disorder is characterized by physical symptoms of a neurological disorder, yet no direct problem can be found in the nervous system or other related systems of the body. This fact alone is not unusual; many diseases and symptoms have unknown origins. Conversion Disorder, however, seems to stem from "trivial" to traumatic psychological events and emotions rather than biological events. The extreme symptoms often disappear as quickly as they appear without the patient consciously controlling or feigning them. Thus, Conversion Disorder serves as a significant example of how blurred the conceived demarcated divisions of mind/body/behavior can be.
Homosexuality was once considered a mental illness which lead to attempts to “cure” it. One of the main theories of homosexuality is that it stems from deviant behavior experienced in childhood. Some men develop homosexual attractions due to a bad relationship with a distant father or in response to childhood molestation (Shapio 5). While some homosexual attractions have been caused by these issues, most homosexuals have not been exposed to molestation or family issues. One of the methods to cure homosexuality is conversion therapy. Conversion therapy consists of a variety of methods, both physical and psychological. Some of these methods include praying away the gay, electroconvulsive therapy, hypnosis, and drugs (“11 Ridiculous” 1). There are many camps which are designed for conversion therapy but many of their practices remain secret. There is little information to be found online regarding these camps because they realize that they are behaving inappropriately so they hide their acts. In the 1980s, homosexuality was determined to have a biological cause; this created two sides – supporters of conversion therapy and its detractors (Friedman 1).
Sexual orientation is a topic scientists spend a great deal of time researching, however it is unclear what factors really have an effect on one’s sexual orientation. The role of biology, culture, socialization, and age contribute to the influences of sexual orientation.
Many people cannot understand why anyone would want to get involved in homosexual activity. There are many arguments about homosexuality whether is by nature or nurture. Before we make judgments on homosexuality, we need to identify the causes of homosexuality. Homosexuality is caused by genetic, biological and environmental factors.
Worthington, E. L. Jr., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., & McDaniel, M. A. (2011). Religion and spirituality. In J. C. Norcross (Ed.), Psychotherapy relationships that work (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press
”Based on countless stories similar to Leelah’s, we can only conclude that conversion therapy indeed does not help, and it can lead to depression, anxiety, and even suicide. Conversion therapy is a psychological treatment based on the idea that being homosexual or any other sexual orientation that deviates from heterosexual is a disorder. This type of therapy has been practiced since the 1930’s, and is commonly practiced by people of religion. Changing someone’s sexual
Though many researchers will agree that homosexuality is not genetic, still, others beg to differ. HRC.org published an article entitled “Guide to Coming Out,” the article states ‘sexuality and gender identity are not choices any more than being left-handed or having brown eyes or being heterosexual are choices…The choice is in deciding how to live your life.’ With society always shoving their view into the minds of Americans second of everyday, it is not that hard to see where the confusion arises.
To begin with, sexual orientation can be determined by more than one factor and is not the same for everybody. According to the American Psychological Association:
But during this period of adolescence, I never really thought about what I was. All the things that took place in the emotional-sexual realm were, admittedly, real and concrete to me: I experienced real feelings for other boys (love, infatuation, sexual attraction). But at the same time, on an "intellectual" level, I never confronted these feelings, and so I continued having them without worrying about them or trying to transform them in any way. They just were, and that was fine with me. While some opponents of homosexuality often claim that it is "unnatural" (a claim which is thoroughly refuted in the essay "Homosexuality and the 'Unnaturalness Argument'"), for me, my homosexual feelings were very natural indeed.
Many of these theories blame the parents for the child eventually being attracted to the same sex. According to the experienced writer Mary Meehan, “… a child develops a homosexual disposition because the same-sex parent has been emotionally distant, cold, or hostile.” (Meehan par. 10) Meehan places all of the pressure on parents to make sure they are loving and she also believes it’s important to reinforce gender roles in this statement, “…. a weak father, who does not draw his son into the world of men and masculinity, and a domineering mother who draws the son into her world” (Meehan par. 21). This would insinuate that every tomboy or male who enjoys an activity such as cooking would undoubtedly be homosexual. However, another cause is the emotional trauma from being sexually abused or molested by the same sex as a child. This is usually thought to be from a creepy uncle or even from the seemly trustworthy priest that cause the victims to become homosexual for the rest of their life, or until they seek
According to the Human Rights Campaign, Conversion therapy is a practice that claims to be able to "turn gay people straight" through therapy. Conversion therapy leads to a variety of negative side effects. According to the Human Rights Campaign, "minors are especially vulnerable, and conversion therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide." Conversion therapy is a horrific practice that should be banned in all fifty states. Conversion therapy is a horrible practice that should be