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This study investigates the influences for, methods of, and impact of sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) on transgender individuals. SOCE uses methods such as religious practices, behavioral modification, cognitive reframing, and counseling as ways to change sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual (Fjelstrom, 2013). This phenomenological, multiple case study analysis examines individual cases of SOCE to find cross-sectional themes among participants. The study identified participants who were influenced to undergo SOCE due to familial attitudes towards transgender identity. Participants described various methods used to suppress their gender identity during SOCE. They reported being negatively impacted by SOCE, experiencing issues such as loss of faith, interpersonal harm, feelings of inauthenticity, lack of trust, negative self-esteem and sexual dysfunction. This study aims to advocate for policy change regarding SOCE and to bring awareness on the use of SOCE among transgender individuals.

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between academia and the state in creating and reinforcing what came to be known as “conversion therapy.” Combining intellectual and political history, Straight Talk argues that after World War II academics working in universities developed the theory and practice of sexual orientation change efforts and how this process made visible tensions between “expert authority” and individual choices related to sexual identities. This research project explores the rise, fall, and lasting impact of ideas, stereotypes, and expectations about sexual minority identities that psychoanalysts and psychiatrists with academic credentials promoted over several decades. By reinterpreting the development and practice of what came to be called conversion therapy, Straight Talk also reframes conventional understandings of the connections among sexuality, higher education, and religion. Contrary to popular belief, religious motivations did not initially fuel sexual orientation change efforts. Rather, religious leaders and professionals within religious universities took up the scientific and academic orthodoxy about sexual orientation change possibilities and deployed them in new settings. Political pressure from within and without the universities, including pressure from emergent and empowered gay and lesbian political groups (including gay and lesbian student groups on university campuses) of the late 1960s, forced secular universities to stigmatize and abandon therapy practices they had long taught as scientifically sound and therapeutically effective. By approaching this topic historically, with a chronological scope that extends from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, this project demonstrates how sexual orientation change efforts first emerged as a respected academic endeavor. Only later through a process lasting several decades did conversion therapy practices become a shadowy, unregulated, and stigmatized set of practices without institutional or mainstream support. Conversion therapy allows for a unique entry point for exploring the relationships between universities, medicine, and the state and how these three entities worked in tandem to stigmatize homosexual identities while simultaneously constructing heterosexual masculinity as the ideal citizen of the twentieth century. / 2026-09-30T00:00:00Z

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / There are three different approaches for the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) sexual orientations: reparative therapies, gay-affirmative therapies, and person-centered approach. These therapeutic approaches will be discussed individually and Kitchener’s Model of Ethical Decision Making or Moral Justification will be applied to each of them with the purpose of identifying which is the most ethical. The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) scholars have not created guidelines for working with LGBTQI or made a clear stance on what they believe would be the best approach to take, therefore, clinical and ethical implications and recommendations for the field of marriage and family therapy will be discussed.

Les pratiques de réorientation sexuelle et de genre (PRSG), souvent appelées thérapies de conversion, sont des pratiques qui visent à changer, nier ou supprimer des orientations sexuelles non hétérosexuelles, et des expressions de genre et des identités de genre transgenres. Les PRSG sont inefficaces et sont associées à des conséquences psychosociales négatives. Cette étude qualitative adopte un devis descriptif interprétatif pour explorer comment les individus qui ont vécu des PRSG se remettent de ces pratiques. Pour ce faire, nous avons mené des entrevues approfondies avec 20 adultes canadiens ayant vécu des PRSG. À l’aide d’une analyse thématique, trois thèmes ont été dérivés sur la base des expériences de rétablissement des participants : 1) reconstruire son cercle de soutien social et trouver de la force dans les communautés lesbiennes, gaies, bisexuelles, transgenres, queers et bispirituelles (LGBTQ2S+) ainsi que dans celles soutenant les personnes LGBTQ2S+  ; 2) surmonter les PRSG grâce aux thérapies et aux soins médicaux affirmant les identités LGBTQ2S+ ; et 3) gérer les relations avec les instigateurs des PRSG. Sur la base de ces résultats, nous proposons des pistes de solutions afin de faciliter le processus de guérison des personnes qui subissent des PRSG. / Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts (SOGIECE)—often referred to as conversion therapy—are practices that aim to change, deny, or suppress transgender and non-heteronormative sexual orientations, gender expressions and gender identities. SOGIECE are ineffective and associated with negative psychosocial consequences. This qualitative study follows an interpretative description design to explore how individuals who have experienced SOGIECE recover from these practices. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 Canadian adult participants with experiences of SOGIECE. Using thematic analysis of the data, three overarching themes were derived pertaining to participants’ recovery from SOGIECE: 1) rebuilding social support and finding strength in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S+) and LGBTQ2S+-affirming communities; 2) overcoming SOGIECE through affirming therapy and healthcare support; and 3) managing SOGIECE instigators. Based on these findings, we offer recommendations to facilitate the recovery process of people who experience SOGIECE.

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation argues that shifting secular conversion therapy practices and theories in North America between 1910 and 1980 consistently relied on both queer affective experience and anti-queer and anti-trans animus to justify often brutalizing medical interventions. Canadian and American conversion therapists’ pathologizing views of queer sexual behavior and gender identity were shaped by complex interplays between cultural, legal, social, and medical perspectives, but predominately worked to uphold heteronormative social structures leading to discrimination, hate, and harm towards queer people in both countries. Focusing on affect thereby encourages scholars to recognize how conversion therapies in all their variable historical permutations are both medical <i>and </i>cultural practices that have attempted to use queer patients’ affective needs for acceptance, love, safety, and validation in ways advancing anti-gay and anti-trans social narratives in purportedly therapeutic settings since the early twentieth century.</p><p dir="ltr">This research uses a transnational approach that is at once sensitive to national differences between the American and Canadian queer experience while looking to draw connections between conversion therapy’s development and individual experiences of this practice in two national contexts over time. It additionally pays careful attention to the ways social power hierarchies based on race and class informed individuals’ affective experiences of conversion therapy between 1910 and 1980.</p>