Conversion Therapy: The Futile ‘Cure’ for Homosexuality

  • Dhwani Shrivastava and Devanshi Dharia
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  • Dhwani Shrivastava

    Student at VIPS, GGSIPU, India

  • Devanshi Dharia

    Student at VIPS, GGSIPU, India

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Abstract

The stigma and the prejudice that is prevalent in our society towards homosexuality, encourages nothing else but homophobic bullying against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Before the 20th century, anybody would hardly talk about homosexuality, let alone standing up against it. Being a member of the LGBTQ community was considered a taboo because these people are expected to walk on the lines of being ‘normal’, a normal which is created by none other than the petty society judging merely on the basis of who you are attracted to. The problem starts when a child is born and is ‘assigned’ a gender only on the basis of physical characteristics completely ignoring the intersex anatanomy. What the misconception is, is that heterosexuality is the only normal and ‘natural’ orientation that a person should have and it creates a rigid way of being that is considered ‘normal’. Anyone who feels and falls out of this structure is considered deviant. Many people believe that as a part of the society, it is their responsibility to ‘cure’ the illness of homosexuality, also considered as a mental disorder by many. In order to fulfill their moral obligation, they force the gay and lesbian people to undergo medical attempts of changing their sexual orientation through something called CONVERSION THERAPY which includes talkative therapies as well as brutal means. This research paper throws light on various topics including what conversion therapy is, what are the different methods, and the status of conversion therapy in different countries. It also includes latest controversies and judgments relating to conversion therapy in countries like U.K. and India. Further, there are statutes listed and briefly explained that protects the right of the victims who are forced into conversion therapy. Lastly, it talks about measures and techniques that are already prevalent, and that can be taken into consideration to build a non-homophobic society where a person feels free to be their actual self and does not have to undergo any pressure of invisibility or judgment.

Type

Research Paper

Information

International Journal of Law Management and Humanities, Volume 4, Issue 3, Page 4456 - 4466

DOI: https://doij.org/10.10000/IJLMH.111005

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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits remixing, adapting, and building upon the work for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.

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