It’s Time to Ban Conversion Therapy

“NASW condemns the use of [conversion therapy] by any person identifying as a social worker or any agency that identifies as providing social work services. NASW supports the adoption of local, state, federal, and international policies and legislation that ban all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” (Social Work Speaks, 2014)

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has been a long-time partner in the fight to end conversion therapy also referred to as reparative therapy or sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE). As a profession ethically charged with improving individual, community, and societal welfare, NASW believes conversion therapy damages all three, often in irreparable ways.

The NASW Code of Ethics mandates all social workers to ‘respect the dignity and inherent worth of a person.’ Conversion therapy is utterly contrary to this mandate. Conversion therapy is rarely, if ever, self-initiated. LGBTQ+ individuals - usually youth - are coerced into empirically disproven treatment by their families, schools, peer groups, and faith institutions. These youth are inundated with messages of them being fundamentally wrong, urged to hate themselves, and see themselves as broken individuals who can only be fixed by rejecting their self-identity in favor of a falsehood. That is not dignity; this is not self-worth.

Social work is an evidence-driven practice. According to a Columbia Law School survey of peer-reviewed medical articles, “there is no credible evidence to support that sexual orientation can be changed through therapeutic intervention,” nor can conversion therapy be performed without negative long-term mental health effects. Instead, conversion therapy tears families - and people - apart, with no consideration for the damage it wreaks in its attempts to ‘fix’ (our youth).

In my private practice, I have seen multiple clients, both transgender and queer-identified, who went through conversion therapy and still suffer from the pain and trauma every day. These clients were told they, as people, were ‘wrong’; they were broken; there was something inside of them that needed to be fixed. But that is not how people work. That’s not how people should be treated. It is good and it is necessary to be who you are. Nobody has the right to change that.

As both a clinician and Executive Director of NASW-Michigan, I condemn this practice, and all those who practice and support it, in the strongest terms possible. Conversion therapy stands diametrically opposed to our core social work values, and my values as a human being.

NASW-Michigan has been working with state lawmakers for years to pass legislation to stop this practice. We support the current efforts from lawmakers such as Senator Mallory Marrow and Representative Yosef Rabhi on SB 284 and HB 4515 which both “aim to prohibit mental health professionals from engaging in efforts to change the sexual orientation and gender identity of a minor.”

I urge all Michiganders to contact their representatives and speak in favor of these bills. We must join the 17 states who have already passed similar legislation and show the rest of the nation that Michigan cares about its youth - no matter their identity.

Maxine Thome, PhD, LMSW, MPH, ACSW

Executive Director. National Association of Social Workers - Michigan