The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it is calling for an end to conversion, or reparative, therapy for children in response to a petition created after trans* teenager Leelah Alcorn’s suicide in December 2014.

According to the petition on Change.org, Alcorn wrote in a suicide note that she was forced to participate in conversion therapy by her parents, who also “pulled her out of school and isolated her in an attempt to change her gender identity.”

President Barack Obama will not call for a federal law against reparative therapy, but instead is supporting efforts in individual states to ban the therapy for youth, according to an April 8 article by The New York Times. Some people have spoken out against the decision, while others say it doesn’t go far enough.

Joseph Nicolosi, founder of reparative therapy, said this type of therapy comes from the psychological term reparative drive, which is when people try to repair themselves through gay sexual activity.

“He’s totally out of line. Obviously, his statement is very revealing that this is a political action,” Nicolosi said of Obama. “Psychology is not for (Obama) to comment on; he is not a psychologist. This is obviously a reaction he is giving due to the pressure he is getting from gay lobbyists.”

Nicolosi said reparative therapy asks patients questions and inquires about feelings and thoughts they have that underlie their behavior. He said, “it offers interpretation, it does not impose interpretation.”

He added that he would be concerned about unaccredited organizations that conduct reparative therapy because they don’t have formal psychological training.

Nicolosi said the fundamental principle of reparative therapy is that being gay can be a symptom of early childhood trauma, which for males includes traumatic rejection by a father and male peers.

Bruce Carter, an associate professor of child and family studies at Syracuse University, said the reality is that reparative therapy is child abuse and that it is harmful behavior to the child.

The decision made by Obama was reasonable, Carter said, “but he’s falling short in his decision morally, scientifically and ethically.”

“He’s allowing states to choose. To me, that’s where he’s gone wrong,” Carter said. “The reality is that these are tortures that have been used against children and adults who don’t align with gender roles that people see as normal.”

Due to younger people who are more accepting, Carter said he suspects in the long term that there is already a broad change in the attitudes of American citizens toward members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

“The reality is that people we know and love are coming out and realizing, ‘The stuff I’ve heard doesn’t fit this individual,’” Carter said. “In the long term, I think reparative therapy will die out because the reality is you get a lag between discrimination and torture of children and adults.”

Published on April 13, 2015 at 11:45 pm

Contact Katelyn: kmfaubel@syr.edu