This is
therapy, and I use the term loosely, to
convert homosexuals to
heterosexuals.
Often religious in nature, but not always, these sessions are often ways to keep ties with friends, family, religious groups, the GOP, etc.
"Most of the emotional disturbance experienced by gay men and lesbians around their sexual identity is not based on physiological causes but rather is due more to a sense of alienation in an unaccepting environment. For this reason, aversion therapy is no longer recommended for gay men and lesbians. Through psychotherapy, gay men and lesbians can become comfortable with their sexual orientation and understand the societal response to it."--American Medical Association
Sometimes this therapy may be forced upon someone, a
child or
teenager (who's already trying to answer a lot of
questions about his/herself). A
therapy forced upon someone is less likely to work than one they
submit to on a voluntary basis.
"Confusion about sexual orientation is not unusual during adolescence. Therapy directed at specifically changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation."--American Academy of Pediatrics
There has been little research, though, just a lot of
posturing w/r/t the issue at hand.
Peer-reviewed journals have no
articles about it and studies that
track patients of this type of therapy do not exist.
"There is no documentary evidence showing someone’s sexual preference can be changed by therapy. There is only anecdotal evidence, mostly from the therapists themselves, claiming that what they do works. That’s not very scientific. On the other hand, there’s no scientific evidence to show that this is impossible . . . It hasn’t been studied." --Dr. Robert Spitzer, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University.