Gay Rights, Patient Rights: The Implications of Sexual Orientation Conversion Therapy

Therapies designed to change sexual orientation have come under increasing scrutiny from the profession and the public. The proposition that sexual orientation can be changed therapeutically is widely questioned, and there is concern that such therapies reinforce social devaluation of homosexuality and bisexuality. At the same time, conservative religious individuals wish to seek treatment appropriate to them, which may include attempting to change or control sexual orientation. The ethical questions and clinical and social implications of this complex issue are discussed. Guidance to practitioners interested in this issue is offered, including references to policies of the American Psychological Association. When homosexuality was declassified as a treatable mental disorder nearly 30 years ago, it was assumed by many that the popularity of treatments intended to change sexual orientation would come to an end. At that time, treatments intended to change homosexual orientation, known as sexual orientation conversion therapy, were discounted by organized psychology and psychiatry as the last vestiges of an antiquated, prejudicial view of homosex-uality. Although conversion therapies are marginalized in main