Brief introduction to the history of conversion therapy in the UK

Conversion therapy in a sentence is an attempt of trying to change someones sexuality from being a homosexual to a heterosexual.

Conversion therapy came about with the peak of the opposition to homosexuality in the 19th century. During this time, homosexuality was considered either perversion or a mental illness. Perceptions of homosexuality as both an illness and a crime led to an ever growing rise in discrimination, inhumane treatments, both shame and guilt and fear for gay men and lesbians. The 19th century was when the alternative methods to "cure" homosexuality began and influenced the attempted therapies that continued into the 20th century.

In the early 20th century, it was a very similar to the 19th century. It was in the 1950s to the 1970s where behavioural therapies became experimental with the attempts to convert someone to heterosexuality. Experiments included where people were slowly injected with apomorphine - which is now used to help symptoms of Parkinsons disease - but it was used as it if it is slowly injected, it can cause extreme nausea whilst the person was looking at naked pictures of pictures of the same sex. Another experiment included getting gay men to masturbate whilst psychotherapist would detail disgusting ideas e.g. "there are worms crawling into your mouth and you vomit." It wasn't until 1973 where homosexuality was removed from the DSM which is a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual that psychotherapists and doctors use to diagnose psychological disorders.

In 2015, there was a Memorandum of Understanding on conversion therapy in the UK by the government, the NHS and led by many leading psychotherapy bodies and gay rights groups which set out the stance on conversion therapy which was overwhelmingly that there was no evidence of success in converting people. In 2018, Theresa May suggested a ban on conversion therapy in the LGBT action plan released by the government after a petition signed by 100,000 people. The British Association of Counsellors and Psychiatrists have revoked licenses for people who perform the aversion therapy.

The ever growing form of conversion therapy in the UK is through religion. Where people are no longer being able to seek professional help, they turn to religion to help with their sexuality. This can happen through prayer groups and study groups, christian discipleship courses, where people devote themselves to god or there are more sever options where people are receiving exorcisms to rid of the devil within. Groups like the Core Issues Trust believe that a ban on conversion therapy is restricting someones human rights in not being able to receive the option of trying to convert themselves.