Explainer: As Madras HC prohibits conversion therapy, a look at history of traumatic 'cures' for queer individuals

This explainer contains descriptions of conversion therapy. Reader discretion is advised On Monday, 7 June, Tamil Nadu was set to become the first state to ban conversion therapy in India. A Madras HC ruling this week put the spotlight on LGBTQ rights, as Justice N Anand Venkatesh recommended a range of measures while hearing S Sushma v Commissioner of Police — the case of a lesbian couple from Madurai who had eloped to Chennai and were being harassed by their families. The families had filed police complaints, following which the petitioners approached the court for protection. Upholding the rights of LGBTQ individuals under Article 21 of the Constitution, Justice Venkatesh’s order prohibits “any attempts to medically cure or change the sexual orientation of LGBTIQA+ people to heterosexual or the gender identity of transgender people to cisgender,” the Indian Express reported. The court said action would be taken against professionals who carried out any form of conversion therapy. What is conversion therapy or cure therapy? The NGO GLAAD defines conversion therapy as “any attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression”. It is vital to note the pseudoscientific nature of this “treatment”, which perceives sexual and gender orientation as a “mental illness” and homosexuality as “abnormal”. The methods can range from “talking” and aversion therapies (employing electroconvulsive shocks or nausea-inducing medication) to prayer, with more extreme measures like exorcisms, physical violence, “corrective rape” and food/sensory deprivation also reported to have been used against LGBTQ individuals. Experts note that conversion therapy can have severe effects for the individual exposed, including putting them at risk for self-harm, depression and suicidal thoughts, and leaving them physically and emotionally traumatised. Historical cases of conversion therapy While conversion therapy has had a long and troubling history throughout the world, among the early recorded cases of a “medical” attempt was by Viennese endocrinologist Eugen Steinach. Steinach transplanted “testicles from straight men into gay men in attempts to change their sexual orientation” — a procedure that was later established to be not only ineffective, but also harmful. Yet another controversial medical treatment was popularised by American neurologist Walter Freeman in the 1940s and ’50s: He used an ice pick to lobotomise homosexual individuals, claiming the procedure would “cure” them. Instead, it left most of his patients severely and permanently disabled. An essay by Lancaster University’s Rianna Price, published in The Conversation, notes that in India, “the earliest documented medical use of aversion techniques were in the 1970s, following a renewed global interest in scientific cures for homosexuality, and was reported in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry”. “When aversion therapy was introduced in India, it involved using electro-convulsive therapy as well as a programme of behavioural therapy to remove fear or anxiety of the opposite sex. Patients would attend sessions with a range of erotic or pornographic same-sex photographs they had chosen themselves. While viewing them, they would receive an electric shock, creating a negative association of pain with their own feelings of arousal. The photographs would then be replaced with a heterosexual image and the electric shock would subside, assigning a sense of relief to opposite-sex attraction. While visual aids were the primary stimuli, Indian practitioners also included sensory materials, such as women’s perfume, to elicit stronger positive relations with opposite-sex stimuli,” Price wrote. Recent cases Last May, conversion therapy was back in the headlines in India when a 21-year-old from Kerala died by suicide. Anjana Harish, a bisexual woman, said she had been forced to undergo conversion therapy by her family — a programme that began with her being assaulted and sedated, then placed in isolation, followed by a course of heavy medication. In a video posted to Facebook, she said, “My own family did this to me, that’s what saddens me the most". Two months after sharing her narrative, she was dead. Earlier this week, a 23-year-old lesbian woman from Tamil Nadu, Pavithra, spoke with a German news publication about her family’s attempts to force her to undergo conversion therapy. This included visits to a general physician followed by a consultation with a psychiatrist who advised Pavithra to watch porn videos depicting heterosexual intercourse. Pavithra’s family also took her to a quack who “prescribed” rum as medication, and an unidentified tablet. She finally fled from her home and has been living with her partner Mary. The same report also quotes Rajashree Raju, a member of the Kerala-based LGBTQ activism group Queerala, as saying that instances of individuals being forced to undergo conversion therapy had doubled during the pandemic-induced lockdown. Incidentally, Queerala has been petitioning for conversion therapy to be declared illegal in India since October 2020, after Anjana Harish’s death. Queerala members approached the Kerala High Court for a decision on the same, and the state’s chapter of the Indian Psychiatric Society issued a statement to the effect that “offering conversion therapy… amount(s) to human rights violation and may invite legal action". What is the medical position on conversion therapy in India? The Indian Psychiatric Society issued an official statement in 2018 — coinciding with the Supreme Court’s ruling reading down Section 377 and decriminalising homosexuality in India — tasking members to ‘stop considering homosexuality as an illness’. The IPS’ president Dr Ajit Bhide asserted that there was no need to “castigate, punish or ostracise” individuals for being homosexuals, which was seen by the queer community as a directive against mental health and medical professionals who might otherwise practice conversion therapy. Where else is conversion therapy banned? Malta, Brazil, Taiwan, Ecuador, Germany have bans in place on conversion therapy. The practice has been criminalised in Canada and Albania. In addition, some US states have protections for LGBTQ individuals against conversion therapy. The UK has also been mulling a ban.