Is conversion therapy legal in the UK, what are conversion camps and how does reparative treatment work?

CONVERSION therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual.

Despite a lack of evidence suggesting such therapy works and respected medical bodies warning that these practices are ineffective and could actually inflict serious harm, advocates say there is anecdotal evidence the therapy can have success.

Is conversion therapy legal in the UK?

It is legal in the UK but medical and government bodies here, as well as in the US, have expressed concern over conversion therapy.

In January, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw told the House of Commons a ban was long overdue.

He said: “This so-called therapy does dreadful, dreadful damage to young people's emotional and psychological health and it is long overdue to be banned."

The Church of England has also called for the practice to be outlawed after its ruling body voted for a ban last year.

Ministers say the UK's medical bodies will already strike-off any psychologists or therapists who practise "gay cure" therapy.

But the government rejected a petition signed by 33,000 people calling for it to be directly banned as it did not have the 100,000 names needed for it to be debated in Parliament.

Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price has said: "This government does not recognise so-called 'gay conversion therapy' as a legitimate treatment.

"A person's sexual orientation is not an illness to be cured."

But she said the government was not aware that use of the "therapy" was widespread in the UK and it was seeking to find out more about it through a survey.

In the 1950s and 1960s, behavioural therapy was routinely used to try to "cure" gay men, paid for by the NHS.

In October 2017 an agreement was signed by NHS heads, the Royal College of GPs and the British Psychological Society, as well as others, that said: "The practice of conversion therapy, whether in relation to sexual orientation or gender identity, is unethical and potentially harmful.”

What are conversion camps?

These are not necessarily literally a camp where people go to be "cured" of the sexual preferences.

But it can mean that rather than specific one-to-one therapy, groups of people are told they can have their sexual orientation changed.

Men convicted of homosexual acts were given electric shock treatment, hallucinogenic drugs and subjected to brainwashing techniques.

Some camps in the US concentrate on "pray the gay away" while others looks at parental conflicts to help them "convert" to heterosexuality.

How does reparative treatment work?

Reparative therapy is often used as a synonym for conversion therapy but strictly speaking it refers to the therapy associated with psychologists Elizabeth Moberly and Joseph Nicolosi.

Brit Moberly is the author of Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic in which she suggested several possible causes for male homosexuality and a therapeutic cure.

US psychologist Nicolosi was the founder and director of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in California.

He is also founder and president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

Nicolosi believes same-sex attraction is a person's rational and unconscious attempt to "self-repair" feelings of inferiority.

The American Psychological Association views reparative therapy as being discredited.

Who is Garrard Conley?

Garrard Conley is the author of the book Boy Erased.

When he was 19 he was sent to a conversion camp in the US which specialised in "praying the gay away".

His experiences there pushed him close to suicide and it took him years to come to terms with who he really was.

He detailed his experiences in his memoirs.