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The @JamaicaGleaner has a penchant for publishing stories about conversion/reparative therapy that needs to stop. Seemingly, the reporters and editors there are not aware of the harmful effects of the practice of trying to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity.
It is very worrying that these stories are published with little to no interrogation about the efforts of those who claim to successfully pray for or counsel people out of being gay or lesbian. There is a wealth of information out there about the effects of conversion therapy.
Stories like the ones published by Gleaner with little to no research and barely any question posed to those who profess to be so successful are even more dangerous because we live in a society where there is wide support for these harmful practices.
Conversion therapy doesn't work. It simply leaves people damaged, broken and in severe pain. There are countless stories of people who have undergone reparative/conversion therapy detailing their experience and the harmful effect it has had on them.
Independent Expert @victor_madrigal of The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) - @UNHumanRights recently published a study on reparative therapy which I commend to you @JamaicaGleaner
Report on conversion therapy https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SexualOrientationGender/Pages/ReportOnConversiontherapy.aspx
Report on conversion therapy https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SexualOrientationGender/Pages/ReportOnConversiontherapy.aspx
@victor_madrigal also did an online session with @HarvardLawHRP where he spoke why we should #EndConversionTherapy https://twitter.com/victor_madrigal/status/1294316163464409088?s=20
We don't hear lots of Jamaican stories about conversion therapy but it exists. From fathers taking their adolescent sons to strip clubs to pastors praying the gay away to 'counselors' attempting to do interventions to make gays and lesbians heterosexual. It happens here as well.
