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The oft-repeated idea that conversion therapy doesn't work is predicated on the idea conversion therapy aims at truly turning people cis, straight, and gender conforming.
Quite the contrary, I think that its goal is to engineer the social death of the trans, queer, gender non-conforming subject. It doesn't care at all whether it 'truly' changes the person: its goal is to make trans, queer, and gender non-conforming disappear.
By making them disappear, conversion therapy maintains the illusion of the unlivability of trans, queer, and gender non-conforming lives. Which, in turn, solidifies the norms that discipline our gendered lives.
That's why my work always resists the question of whether conversion therapy 'works' at changing people's identities and desires. Because that's not the point, nor the problem with conversion therapy. Its dehumanizing nature isn't dependent on whether or not it 'works' that way.
My friends who experienced conversion therapy deserve our labour and support because their lives are worth living. Because they're amazing people who bring richness to the world. Because they don't deserve that awfulness, shame, and hurt. Not because they're 'unchangeable'.
The goal of conversion therapy isn't to eradicate the trans, queer, and gender non-conforming that lies inside people. It's to ensure the social death of trans, queer, and gender non-conforming people. And at that, conversion therapy works exceptionally well.
