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Sexual orientation conversion therapy was the treatment of choice when homosexuality was thought to be an illness. Despite the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness, efforts to sexually reorient lesbians and gay men continue. The construct of sexual orientation is examined, as well as what constitutes its change. The literature in psychotherapeutic and religious conversion therapies is reviewed, showing no evidence indicating that such treatments are effective in their intended purpose. A need for empirical data on the potentially harmful effects of such treatments is established. Ethical considerations relative to the ongoing stigmatizing effects of conversion therapies are presented. The need to develop more complex models for conceptualizing sexual orientation is discussed, as well as the need to provide treatments to gay men and lesbians that are consonant with psychology’s stance on homosexuality.

The question of how to change sexual orientation has been discussed as long as homoeroticism itself has been described in the literature. For over a century, medical, psychotherapeutic, and religious practitioners have sought to reverse unwanted homosexual orientation through various methods: These include psychoanalytic therapy, prayer and spiritual interventions, electric shock, nausea-inducing drugs, hormone therapy, surgery, and various adjunctive behavioral treatments, including masturbatory reconditioning, rest, visits to prostitutes, and excessive bicycle riding (Murphy, 1992). Early attempts to reverse sexual orientation were founded on the unquestioned assumption that homosexuality is an unwanted, unhealthy condition. Although homosexuality has long been absent from the taxonomy of mental disorders, efforts to reorient gay men and lesbians persist. Recently, for example, a coalition of mental health practitioners formed an organization dedicated to the “rehabilitation” of gay men and lesbians. Many practitioners still adhere to the officially debunked “illness” model of homosexuality, and many base their treatments on religious proscriptions against homosexual behavior. Still others defend sexual reorientation therapy as a matter of free choice for the unhappy client, claiming that their treatments do not imply a negative judgment on homosexuality per se. They seek to provide what they describe as a treatment alternative for men and women whose homosexuality is somehow incongruent with their values, life goals, or psychological structures.

Of the articles to be examined in this review, few...