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Religious Conversion Practices and LGBTQA + Youth

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posted on 2023-01-13, 06:13 authored by Tiffany Jones, Jennifer PowerJennifer Power, Adam HillAdam Hill, Nathan Despott, Marina CarmanMarina Carman, Timothy JonesTimothy Jones, Joel AndersonJoel Anderson, Adam BourneAdam Bourne
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00615-5
Introduction: Multiple jurisdictions are debating responses to United Nations calls for banning attempts at conversion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and asexual (LGBTQA +) peoples’ identities to fit religious norms. This paper aimed to examine Australian LGBTQA + youths’ experiences and outcomes of religious conversion practices attempting to change or suppress their gender or sexuality. It explored how attending conversion practices related to demographic characteristics and outcomes. Methods: A 2019 online health and social well-being survey promoted via diverse social media questioned 6412 LGBTQA + Australians aged 14–21 years on their experiences of sexuality or gender change or suppression practices. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to understand relationships between exposure to conversion practices and demographic, socio-behavioural, and health and well-being measures. Results: Whilst most participants had never attended counselling, group work, programs or interventions aimed at changing their sexuality or gender identity, 4% had attended such conversion practices. Analyses showed associations between engaging with conversion practices and (1) specific demographics (being cisgender male, multi-gender-attracted, unemployed, affiliated to a religion at the personal or household level); (2) social experiences (increased exposure to social rejection, negative remarks and harassment); (3) socio-behavioural outcomes (decreased education, sport and housing opportunities) and (4) negative health and mental health outcomes (including increased suicidality and self-harm). Conclusions: The paper showed that conversion practices are correlated with poor well-being outcomes, providing arguments for expanding inclusive health and mental health services allowing for affirming religious and non-religious identities for LGBTQA + youth. Policy Implications: The paper provides evidence supporting bans on conversion practices.

Funding

Victorian Government Department of Premier and Cabinet, ACT Government Office for LGBTIQA + Affairs, NSW Department of Health, SHINE SA and SA Chief Psychiatrist Office.

History

Publication Date

2022-09-01

Journal

Sexuality Research and Social Policy

Volume

19

Issue

3

Pagination

10p. (p. 1155-1164)

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

1553-6610

Rights Statement

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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