Why is a feminist analysis of such "therapeutic" practice even necessary? Reparative therapies are usually approached from an "anti-homophobic" viewpoint, but it is much more than that. These therapies claim and attempt to end homosexual, deviant behavior. They claim being able to "convert" homosexuals to heterosexuals. Most individuals who undergo this treatment are either coerced by family members (typically as minors), or are trying to reconcile their feelings and sexual desires with their religious convictions.
A feminist analysis can approach these therapies as a method of continuing and perpetuating the hierarchy. Lesbians are often seen as a threat to patriarchy, by rendering male and female relationships as dominant and submissive (respectively), as obsolete. Women (and similarly-identified "submissive" groups) are seen as making men obsolete, unnecessary, and as a threat to the patriarchy by doing such things. Gay men can similarly be seen as a threat, in relegating themselves to "inferior," submissive positions (read, effeminate), by willingly putting themselves in positions below their divine right as males. Constituents of patriarchal institutions and male privilege often can't understand why a man would willingly become submissive to someone of the same innate social status as himself.
These therapies are typically (although not exclusively) promoted by white, religious heterosexuals, flouting homosexuality as an "intrinsic moral sin," or a mental illness, rather than just another facet of common human existence (Bellis, Hufford).
California has recently become the first state to place a ban on conversion therapy for minors; those opposed to this ban argue that it places prohibitions on the rights of parents, and minors who want to willingly try these therapies. The important thing to acknowledge here, though, is that most often, minors who undergo conversion therapies are doing so against their will.
A 2009 American Medical association study on SOCE (sexual-orientation-change efforts) saw that "...[d]istress and depression were exacerbated" by some individuals undergoing conversion therapy. People that enter these therapies are seen as a deviation from the patriarchal norm, and as a threat to the "system," so they are often deemed as mentally ill or otherwise unfit or deficient.
Programs such as this are divisive and tearing to the families and communities that experience and are affected by them. They have detrimental effects on participants and loved ones involved; the results can be just as bad as maintaining a homosexual lifestyle in otherwise conservative environments and communities.
On a more global scale, by embracing things such as "reparative" therapies (which indicates that homosexuality is something that warrants repairing) and other deviations from social norms (here defined as white, patriarchal, dominant-religious, heterosexual, etc.) we are sending a message to every nation and person that to be something "Other" than the patriarchal ideal, is wholly wrong and unacceptable. By oppressing members of our own community we are perpetuating imperialism, Whiteness, patriarchy, and other American societal norms, and forcing them on others, inside and outside of our communities.
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