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In 2002, the Memphis ministry Love in Action began to offer a camp program to teens known as "Refuge". Led by John Smid, the camp had a strict "prison-like" environment in which teens were cut off from the outside world, banned from certain types of media, and were forced to attend incredibly emotionally manipulative group counseling.
John Smid, who led Refuge for six years, was a homosexual man who claimed he had changed himself from homosexual to heterosexual. Following his first divorce in 1980, in which he came out as gay, Smid sought to convert himself to heterosexuality through Christianity. It's obvious that what happened with Love in Action was a cumulation of Smid's own personal shame exerting itself onto these impressionable teens.
Most of the scrutiny Love in Action faced came from sixteen year old Zach Stark and his blog posts on MySpace. He put forth the emotional abuse that he was enduring at Refuge. Stark's heartbreaking messages to the world reached so many people that an investigation was launched on Love in Action by the Tennessee Department of Child Safety, however, no evidence of illegal child abuse was ever found.
"Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay.... Well today, my mother, father, and I had a very long "talk" in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist Christian program for gays. They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they "raised me wrong." I'm a big screw up to them, who isn't on the path God wants me to be on. So I'm sitting here in tears, joining the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs - and I can't help it."
from Zach Stark's MySpace page
John Smid stepped down from Love in Action in 2008. He acknowledged that his program "further wounded teens that were already in a very delicate place in life".
Later on, Smid would go on to say that he had "never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual".
Despite this, conversion therapy is still ongoing throughout the South. There are 27 states which still allow conversion therapy to take place. There are over 1,300 active practitioners in the U.S. across 48 states. In order to bypass the laws, many unlicensed individuals act under the guise of religious profession in order to "treat" homosexual teens.
What is Conversion Therapy?
Conversion therapy is intensive emotional therapy used with the intention to convert someone's sexuality (gay to straight). According to the Human Rights Campaign, "Such practices have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades".
Conversion therapy camps aim to "reform" the youth by affiliating their sexuality with sin. Utilizing psychological and, occasionally, physical torment, conversion therapy generally targets those from heavily religious backgrounds, specifically those with more conservative or evangelical beliefs.
During the 1900s, conversion therapy was significantly more medically accepted and widespread. However, conversion therapy is still being practiced to this day, despite the philosophy backing it being dismantled by modern medical and mental health organizations (that philosophy being the belief that members of the LGBTQ+ community are unnatural and suffer from mental illnesses that must be cured). Licensed mental health providers support these outdated beliefs, pushing this belief onto mostly younger members of the LGBTQ+ community, as evidenced by The Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. national survey on the mental health of LGBTQ+ young people, which revealed that fifteen percent of young members of the community were afraid of seeking out desired mental health care at the risk of being subjected to conversion therapy.
Suicide prevention experts are still making efforts to educate communities on the dangers of conversion therapy, however they are being met with the growing misconception that those efforts are no longer happening. As the LGBTQ+ community becomes more represented in public spaces and media, some have begun to believe this signifies a decline in anti-LGBTQ+ practices like conversion therapy. However this is untrue, as The Trevor Project identified in 2023 more than 1,320 conversion therapy practitioners across 48 states and the district of Columbia, and almost half of them possess active unrestricted state licenses, 716 of them practice in a ministerial capacity, promoting conversion therapy in a pastoral or religious position of power. A report by the UCLA School of Law states that "an estimated 20,000 LGBTQ+ minors in states without protections will be subjected to conversion therapy by a licensed healthcare professional if state officials fail to act".
Source: Axios
The Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity (ATCSI)
The ATCSI is an organization which accredits conversion therapy to being a legitimate practice. On their website, https://www.therapeuticchoice.com/, they offer resources for people seeking conversion therapy.
They does not believe that homosexuality is genetically or biologically determined. They state on their Frequently Asked Questions page that if one twin in a pair of twins is gay, then it is a one in nine chance for the other twin to be gay as well. Therefore, homosexuality is not biological according to the ATCSI.
They also claim on their FAQ that "exclusive opposite-sex attraction is approximately 17 times more stable than exclusive same-sex attraction for men and 30 times more stable than exclusive same-sex attraction for women".
The three guiding principles in the Alliance are:
Client Self-determination
"Mental health clients have the right to explore, with the assistance of a supportive therapist, questions or issues in their lives that may be causing them concern or distress and to participate in the setting of counseling goals that are compatible with their freely chosen personal or religious values."
Licensed, trained and ethical therapists
"Complicated life questions that are being addressed in a mental health context concerning a client's attractions, values, behavior, and identity require that a counselor or therapist be qualified by demonstrated training and experience to provide effective, ethical, and empathetic treatment."
Reliable research and viewpoint diversity in mental health
"Individuals who seek therapeutic assistance, reflective of the larger society, are sociologically, culturally and politically diverse, sometimes referred to as conservative or liberal. To appropriately serve and appreciate clients with differing needs or viewpoints requires open-mindedness, evidenced-based thinking and practice in academic, clinical, research, and professional association leadership in the psychological sciences."
To summarize this video, the ATCSI states that sexual orientation is fluid and it can be changed through conversion practices and incredible self-determination.
With the rise of people's rights movements in America's modern age, the ATCSI has made their own statement.
To bypass laws in states that have banned conversion therapy, the ATCSI does not offer any of its services "direct to the public", instead acting as a sort of middle-man by providing licensed therapists which align with their guidelines and the mission they intend to follow.
The Impacts of Conversion Therapy
Conversion therapy has been discredited countless times from multiple reputable organizations throughout the world. PubMed central states how adolescents are more susceptible to sexual orientation and gender change efforts due to the development of their brains. They are also more susceptible to parental influence due to their emotional and financial reliance on their parents.
What conversion therapy reinforces on impressionable teens is shame. They are shamed by their family members and peers, and then forced to stay ashamed of a part of themself they cannot change. They continue to try and change their sexuality when, in reality, it isn't possible. This leads to a laundry list of disorders later on in life, including "depression, anxiety, suicidality, substance abuse, a range of post-traumatic responses, loss of connection to community, damaged familial relationships, self-blame, guilt, and shame", says the Trevor Project. Children forced into believing that the life they live is inherently sinful will grow up with deep resentment towards every piece of themselves.
The Trevor Project also states how "The APA noted research linking conversion therapy to lower levels of educational attainment and socioeconomic status, as well as feelings of anger and grief caused by the significant time and money lost to this fraudulent practice". Fear of conversion therapy also stops many young LGBTQ+ people from seeking out mental health care.
What's interesting is how many leaders of conversion therapy camps are homosexual themselves (though they claim to have converted to heterosexuality). The attempt to convert teens is an attempt to reconcile with their faith. The intense pressure and shame they face from their own religion leads them to force their own methods onto others.
As said by the Trevor Project, "Despite the widespread belief by some that so-called ‘conversion therapy’ is a dying relic of a bygone era, it’s still happening."
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