Of all the youth belonging to the Lesbian Gay Bi Trans* (LGBT) community, 30% have attempted suicide by the time they were 15, four times the amount of suicide attempts among cisgender and heterosexual youth. A factor in the suicide rate is conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is a practice in which sexual orientation or gender identity is attempted to be changed. In the past, extreme measures such as institutionalization, castration, and electroconvulsive shock therapy were taken. Today, some of the most commonly used physical practices are aversive conditioning, behavioral, cognitive, and psychoanalytic therapy. Conversion therapy should be banned because sexual orientation is not a mental disorder, severe emotional effects experienced by patients who completed conversion therapy, and the lack of substantial evidence supporting it. I am writing this letter because I have friends who are LGBT, and the recent election results, mostly Mike Pence the vice president-elect, fanned the flames of activism in my heart.
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) withdrew homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as the DSM. This was due to the changing societal views of the time, the gay liberation movement that originated in the 1960s, …show more content…
Conversion therapy is one of them. There are multiple reasons why conversion therapy should not be practiced in the United States, the APA findings recorded in the DSM, the lack of scientific evidence, and psychological effect . Hopefully sometime in the future, laws will be put against it for the whole of the country, but for now, it is in the hands of the individual. Today, we can lower the LGBT suicide rate and become a voice for not just one minority, but for everyone so we will not see as many people around us become statistics. Being gay will always be
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) withdrew homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as the DSM. This was due to the changing societal views of the time, the gay liberation movement that originated in the 1960s, …show more content…
Conversion therapy is one of them. There are multiple reasons why conversion therapy should not be practiced in the United States, the APA findings recorded in the DSM, the lack of scientific evidence, and psychological effect . Hopefully sometime in the future, laws will be put against it for the whole of the country, but for now, it is in the hands of the individual. Today, we can lower the LGBT suicide rate and become a voice for not just one minority, but for everyone so we will not see as many people around us become statistics. Being gay will always be