An estimated 77,000 LGBT children in the US are subjected to conversion therapy from psychological or spiritual interventions before they turn 18, claims new research.
Conversion therapy is an effort to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity and is grounded in the belief that being lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans-gendered is abnormal.
Approximately 20,000 LGBT children between the ages of 13 and 17 will receive this intervention from a licensed health care professional, while 57,000 youth will receive it from a religious or spiritual adviser, according to a new study by UCLA School of Law.
Researchers said banning conversion therapy — which has been linked to an increased risk of depression, anxiety, drug use, and suicide — could protect thousands of LGBT children.
About 20,000 LGBT children will receive this intervention from a licensed health care professional
‘I was surprised to see that the percentage of LGBT people who had received conversion therapy from a licensed health care professional as adolescents was consistent across the three age groups from whom data were collected,’ Christy Mallory, lead author of the study, told Daily Mail Online.
‘This means that this practice is still continuing, it is not a technique from the past that is no longer used.’
Mallory, the state and local policy director at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, also found that nearly 700,000 LGBT adults between 18 and 59 years old have received conversion therapy, including 350,000 adults who received them as teens.
Conversion therapy, which is legal in 41 US states, has been used as early as the 1890s.
Talk therapy is currently the most common technique of the intervention, but a wide range of techniques — from hypnosis to electric shocks — have been used by both health care professionals and religious figures of the years.
Other techniques include aversion treatment, such as inducing nausea and vomiting, and having someone snap an elastic band around their wrist when they become aroused by same-sex erotic images of thoughts.
Studies have found conversion therapy to be completely ineffective.
A 2009 study from the American Psychological Association task force found that after the intervention, participants continued to be attracted to members of their own sex and not to those of the opposite sex.
Not only has conversion therapy been proven ineffective, it has been linked to adverse health affects such as an increased risk of depression, anxiety, drug use and suicide.
A report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2015 found efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation was linked to lower self-esteem, self-hatred, depression, and an increased risk of suicide.
Currently, only nine states including California, New Jersey and Oregon have laws protecting youth under age 18 from receiving conversion therapy from licensed health care providers.
US states like Connecticut, Nevada, New Mexico and Rhode Island, passed bans in 2017.
According to the study, 6,000 young people aged 13 to 17 would have received conversion therapy before they reached adulthood if their state had not banned the practice.
While some state bans also apply to anyone who performs the practice in exchange for money, none of them prevent religious or spiritual advisors from providing conversion therapy as long as they are acting solely in a spiritual capacity.
‘These findings will allow law and policymakers and the public to consider the magnitude of this issue for the first time,’ Mallory told Daily Mail Online. ‘They will give context to the personal stories and anecdotes that people have shared about their experiences with conversion therapy.’
A ban on conversion therapy, which has been linked to an increased risk of suicidal thoughts, could potentially impact suicide rates among most young people in the LGBT community.
According to the CDC, nearly one-third of lesbian, gay and bisexual kids had attempted suicide at least once in the past year compared to 6 percent of young people who are straight.
This year, several more states will be considering conversion therapy bans and pending federal legislation — the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act — would outlaw the practice nationwide.
Mallory said laws banning conversion therapy could protect tens of thousands of teens from what medical experts say is a harmful and ineffective practice.