Conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. In contrast to evidence-based medicine and cli ...

is the practice of attempting to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. As of December 2022, twenty-two countries have bans on conversion therapy, seven of them ban the practice by any person: Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Malta and New Zealand; seven ban its practice by medical professionals only; Albania, Brazil, India, Israel, Portugal, Vietnam and Taiwan; another eight: Argentina, Chile, Fiji, Nauru, Paraguay, Samoa, Switzerland, and Uruguay have indirect bans in that diagnoses based solely on sexual orientation or gender identity are banned without specifically banning conversion therapy, this effectively amounts to a ban on health professionals since they would not generally engage in therapy without a diagnosis. In addition, some jurisdictions within the Australia, Mexico, Spain and United States also ban conversion therapy. In China and South Africa case law has found conversion therapy to be unlawful. Bills banning conversion therapy are being considered in Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Legal status by country

Legal status by US state

Although no national ban exists, several US states and individual counties ban therapy attempting to change sexual orientation as shown in the map below. US states banning conversion therapy for minors

US states banning conversion therapy for minors

Legal cases

On 25 June 2015, a New Jersey jury found the Jewish conversion therapy organization JONAH guilty of consumer fraud in the case '' Ferguson v. JONAH'' for promising to be able to change its clients' sexual urges and determined its commercial practices to be unconscionable. In a 1997 U.S. case, the

Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District o ...

addressed conversion therapy in the context of an asylum application. A Russian citizen "had been apprehended by the Russian militia, registered at a clinic as a 'suspected lesbian', and forced to undergo treatment for lesbianism, such as 'sedative drugs' and hypnosis. ... The Ninth Circuit held that the conversion treatments to which Pitcherskaia had been subjected constituted mental and physical torture." The court rejected the argument that the treatments to which Pitcherskaia had been subjected did not constitute persecution because they had been intended to help her, not harm her, and stated "human rights laws cannot be sidestepped by simply couching actions that torture mentally or physically in benevolent terms such as 'curing' or 'treating' the victims". In 1993, the Superior Court of San Francisco's Family Court placed 15-year-old lesbian

Lyn Duff Lyn Duff (born 1976) is an American journalist. Her career began in eighth grade with an underground school newspaper and has continued in various written and audio mediums. She has done extensive reporting in Israel and Haiti. After being forced ...

under the guardianship of a foster couple after her mother committed her to Rivendell Psychiatric Center in West Jordan, Utah, where she allegedly endured physical abuse under the guise of conversion therapy. Lyn Duff's petition to leave her mother was granted without court opinion.

References

;Notes ; Citations Conversion therapy

Legal status by country

Legal status by US state

Legal cases

References

Further reading