"Conversion" therapies are acts of violence aimed squarely at LGBTQ people. They are also a tool used by right-wing religious organizations to raise money and advocate against LGBTQ civil rights. And with this money these organizations are able to produce politically and religiously biased, agenda-driven science like "reparative therapies," attempting to justify them by presenting LGBTQ people as genetically flawed. This charge is eerily reminiscent of the scientific racism and sexism that once undergirded the belief that blacks and women were morally inferior due to supposed genetic flaws.
With more and more "ex-gay" ministries not only losing potential clients and political leverage, but also losing money, there is a gradually shift from "curing" one's LGBTQ sexual orientation to abstinence from it. In other words, the theological message that homosexuality is an abomination to God and is a sin remain intact, but more emphasis will be placed on celibacy.
An emphasis on a discipleship to celibacy is equally as harmful and damaging as "ex-gay" ministries. This message suggests we're incurable and should execute control over our ungodly desires. However, when we miss the essential point that human life is varied, precious, and of equal worth, we ignore the unique gifts that each life brings to each other and to the world.
"Ex-gay" ministries should all fold because they don't focus on families, but rather they blur the distinctiveness that makes us who we are. God created humanity as a tapestry of variety. Diminishing that variety diminishes ourselves.
That's what Leelah was telling us.
Conversion Therapy's Deadly Outcomes | The Bilerico Project
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