Ban on Conversion Therapy for the LGBTQIA+ Community

Context

Recently, the National Medical Commission (NMC), the apex regulatory body of medical professionals in India, has written to all State Medical Councils, banning conversion therapy.

What is conversion therapy?

• Conversion or reparative therapy is an intervention aimed at changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of an individual. 
• It uses either psychiatric treatment, drugs, exorcism and even violence, with the aim being to make the individual a heterosexual. 
• The conversion therapy umbrella also includes efforts to change the core identity of youth whose gender identity is incongruent with their sex anatomy. 

Risks of conversion therapy 

• Targeting youth: "Reparative" or "conversion" therapy is a dangerous practice that targets LGBTQ youth and seeks to change their sexual or gender identities.
• Ineffectiveness: There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and that it frequently causes significant, long-term psychological harm in individuals who undergo it.
• According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), the interventions under conversion therapy are provided under the false premise that homosexuality and diverse gender identities are pathological. 
• “They are not; the absence of pathology means there is no need for conversion or any other intervention.” 
• Health hazards: Further, according to AACAP and other health experts, conversion therapy poses the risk of causing or exacerbating mental health conditions, like anxiety, stress and drug use which sometimes even lead to suicide.