Channelknight Fadran

What I have learned about today is not the worst thing to ever happen

But I will say this: it is definitely up there.

To all my queer friends, you probably know all about Conversion "Therapy." To all my other friends who are otherwise out of the loop, you might have conceived the idea on your own time as Something that Probably Happens. It is the "practice" of "fixing" a person's sexual orientation, gender preference, or pretty much anything else that isn't just Straight. I've always assumed that were some bad-apple religious zealots and who actually did it, but I kind of figured that it was a rare occurrence.

No.

First of all: disclaimer. The best numbers I could find were for a research paper taken in Ohio. The article citing it discloses several times that their "national" statistics are extrapolated from these, and that no conclusive Everywhere Study has crunched the numbers on the whole thing.

Second of all: trigger warning? Maybe I should've put this earlier, but if you're uncomfortable with the idea of suicide, self-harm, identity assassination, and other forms of enforced self-hatred; be warned. 

Because exposure to "Conversion "Therapy"" doubles the suicide rate for queer teens; in the best of cases.

I am not queer, to my knowledge. I am a very straight, cishet, white, default American male; and as a professional Autistic guy, I've always had trouble with empathy. Sympathy I can manage just fine, but to actually put myself in someone else's shoes and try to feel what they're feeling is really hard; so when I first learned about this horrendous practice, and felt genuine rage and terror at just the mere idea... I couldn't begin to imagine what it would actually be like for a real person.

The "process" varies from practitioner to practitioner, because it is not a science in any respect - dozens (if not hundreds) of studies have completely berated the practice, citing it as anything and everything from baseless to actively harmful to literally deadly. The practice is banned in 20 states, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico; but even then, the law cannot extend past medical 'professionals.' 4/5 "therapists" for the process are religious leaders.

Like... let me make it clear just how unprofessional that is. A large number of modern-day religions are structurally opposed to queer individuals (I'll be referring to Christian denominations because I'm not particularly qualified to discuss anything else), but many have several individuals who either don't actively depose their identities. The literal Pope has made several remarks that - while still rather homophobic in nature - don't claim that homosexuality or transgenderism is a sin against God. Even if his words are to say "I'm sure God can help you gay folks," there's still a heavy theme of "we must accept everyone, regardless of who they are, so long as they are good."

So... homophobia is homophobia. But d'you want to know what's worse than homophobia?

CONVERSION THERAPY

THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT IS LITERALLY LEGAL ACROSS MORE THAN HALF THE UNITED STATES

Here's some numbers: roughly 2% of all LGBTQ+ minors will be exposed to Conversion Therapy. There are roughly 2 million LGBTQ+ minors in the USA. Badabing badaboom: 40,000 minors exposed to Conversion Therapy every year.

LGBTQ+ minors are four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers; Queer individuals exposed to Conversion Therapy are twice as likely on top of that, making their chances eight times more likely than the "average" person.

How many Queer kids to undergo this process will attempt suicide a year? Thirteen thousand. How many will succeed? Three thousand.

Conversion Therapy has a 13% mortality rate.

You are more likely to survive a Cancer Diagnosis