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fessional associations unite with clear ethical guidelines on men-
tal health issues, they have the power to change professional per-
spectives and public perceptions. These ethics are the ones that
future students will learn in the mental health professions.
Other benefits from a joint statement could ensue. The
Southern Poverty Law Center is litigating in New Jersey on the
premise that conversion therapy is consumer fraud. That victory
would be a major precedent, and a joint declaration would un-
doubtedly boost the case against this practice. The National Cen-
ter for Lesbian Rights has a new national campaign underway
called #BornPerfect whose aim is to protect youth in every state
from conversion therapy. A joint memorandum would go very
far indeed in advancing their campaign, too.
There are also worldwide benefits. Self-declared conver-
sion therapists can be found worldwide. Several years ago
health provider organizations in Uganda supported that nation’s
“kill the gays” bill because they were deluded into believing
that conversion therapy works. Now that a joint memorandum
has been issued by fourteen associations in the UK, this myth
has less credibility worldwide. Let us stand shoulder-to-shoul-
der with the UK organizations and reinforce that message. It
might even save a life.
Jim Walker, MA, MFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice in San
Francisco. He can be contacted at
Therapists: Declare ‘Ex-Gay Therapy’ Unethical
JIM WALKER
L AST DECEMBER, Leelah Alcorn, a seventeen-year-old
transgender girl, committed suicide by walking in front
of a tractor-trailer in Ohio. Before her death, she blogged
that she would rather die than be forced to continue “conversion
therapy.” Her suicide moved hundreds of thousands of people
to sign on-line petitions against conversion therapy, also known
as “ex-gay therapy” or “reorientation therapy.”
News of her death energized many of us to be more proac-
tive in debunking conversion therapy. We are mental health
therapists from different disciplines, and we’re are aware of
how conversion therapy is harmful for teens and adults, caus-
ing depression, alienation, and even suicide. We were ardent
supporters of the first state law in the U.S. against conversion
therapy, which passed in California in 2012. That law was
groundbreaking, albeit limited in scope, and so far only one
other state, New Jersey, has followed California’s lead.
Earlier this year, fourteen major medical and psychological
bodies in the UK issued a joint memorandum of understanding
declaring conversion therapy to be unethical. Major British or-
ganizations from the Royal College of General Practitioners to
the Association of Christian Counsellors to the National Health
Service of England issued a joint declaration stating that con-
version therapy is unethical and harmful. The memorandum
states that “Awareness of the prevalence of conversion therapy
in the UK grew following the publication of research in 2009
which revealed that one in six psychological therapists had en-
gaged clients in efforts to change their sexual orientation.”
Colleagues and I have started asking U.S. medical and psy-
chological organizations to declare conversion therapy uneth-
ical. We see what happened in the UK as the beginning of a
more comprehensive change in the U.S., and eventually around
the world. We would like to see U.S. health provider associa-
tions take the next step, as the British have done, and declare
with a united voice that conversion therapy is unethical.
U.S. health associations have issued guidelines for thera-
peutic responses that respect patients’ same-sex erotic attrac-
tions and gender identity differences. What’s needed now is a
joint statement affirming that conversion therapy is unethical. It
would greatly raise ethical awareness and responsibility nation-
ally, and deeply validate that being LGBT is healthy. When pro-
GUEST OPINION
May–June 2015 5
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