Conversion Therapy Explained: The Hidden Abuse Still Facing LGBTQ+ People

In a country where LGBTQ+ rights are constitutionally enshrined, one might assume that queer South Africans are safe from the world’s most harmful anti-LGBTQ+ practices.

But behind the progressive legal framework lies a disturbing reality: conversion therapy remains alive and unchecked in South Africa, often operating in homes, churches, and traditional healing spaces.

What Is Conversion Therapy?

Conversion therapy, also known as “reparative therapy”, refers to a discredited, ineffective and dangerous set of practices aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It can be employed against both young people (minors) and adults.

Often cloaked in pseudoscientific language or religious righteousness, it is not therapy at all – it is abuse and torture.

Survivors describe being subjected to forced prayer sessions, counselling, exorcisms, beatings, humiliation, fasting, and even rape, all in the name of “curing” them of their queerness.

Conversion Therapy in South Africa

The apartheid era in South Africa saw the military run a programme called the Aversion Project, which aimed to “cure” soldiers of homosexuality through what’s been described as medical torture. Between 1971 and 1989, victims were submitted to chemical castration and electric aversion treatment in a brutal attempt at conversion therapy.

In 2015, a man who ran a camp that promised to turn boys who were deemed to be feminine into “real men” was found guilty of the murder of a 15-year-old boy. Raymond Buys was forced to do manual labour, tasered, beaten with planks, pipes, sticks, a shovel and a hose to make him more masculine. He was said to have been the third teenager to have died at the camp.

Sadly, efforts to change LGBTQ+ people continue today across South Africa. A 2022 Access Chapter 2 study found that conversion therapy is practiced in many forms by parents, extended family members, religious leaders, psychologists, traditional healers, ordinary community members and schoolteachers. A horrifying 12% of survivors who took part in the research reported being subjected to corrective rape.

What is the Impact?

Studies have shown that the impact of conversion therapy can be devastating and long-lasting. Survivors often face distress, trauma, and long-term psychological damage.

Often imposed on young people, these practices have been linked to severe mental health issues, including depression, anxiety and suicidal thinking, homelessness and substance abuse.

Survivors Speak: “It Never Really Goes Away”

One South African survivor, quoted in OutRight’s Converting Mindsets, Not Our Identity Report, recalled being locked in a room by a pastor who claimed he could remove the “demons” of homosexuality. “They prayed over me for days. I wasn’t allowed to eat or speak unless it was to confess my sin.” Another survivor said she was raped by a man chosen by her family to “make her straight.”

These so-called “corrective” rapes, particularly targeting lesbian and trans women, are often organised by family members under the guise of protection or religious duty. Survivors describe years of trauma and lifelong psychological effects. “Even after I came out again,” said one woman, “I still battle with guilt and trust. It never really goes away.”

Global Momentum Toward a Ban

A 2020 report by Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN’s Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity at the time, urged countries to outlaw conversion therapy, highlighting its association with depression and increased suicide rates.

Progress is being made globally, but slowly. Sixteen countries — including Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Brazil have banned conversion therapy, either partially or fully.

Around 20 US states have prohibited the practice for minors, although many laws exclude religious counsellors. Other countries, like Ireland, are consulting on similar bans.

The Legal Grey Area in South Africa

Despite the harms, conversion therapy is not explicitly illegal in South Africa. While the Children’s Act protects against abuse, it doesn’t name or criminalise conversion therapy. This legal gap allows the practice to continue under the radar, particularly in religious and traditional settings.

In 2021, the Democratic Alliance announced plans to introduce a Private Members’ Bill to ban conversion therapy for minors. DA MP and then Shadow Minister of Health Siviwe Gwarube said the bill was in line with a party resolution that deemed the practice unacceptable.

“The DA believes minors should not be subjected to this reprehensible practice,” said Gwarube. “It should be banned in South Africa just as it is in countries like Canada and Brazil.”

Unfortunately, neither the promised bill nor any other similar legislation addressing conversion therapy has been introduced by South African lawmakers.

Uganda’s Dangerous Direction

While South Africa considers regulation, other countries are intensifying their assault on queer rights. In 2023, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni insisted that the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill include a provision to allow LGBTQ+ individuals to be “rehabilitated” through conversion therapy.

His government described queer people as “psychologically disoriented” and suggested an “amnesty” for those who come forward to reject their sexuality.

Museveni praised lawmakers and religious leaders for resisting what he called “imperialist pressure,” highlighting just how deeply entrenched anti-queer sentiment remains in parts of Africa.

An Urgent Need for Affirmative, Ethical Care

Major health bodies, including the World Psychiatric Association and Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), have labelled conversion therapy unethical and dangerous.

In 2023, the Sexuality and Gender Division of PsySSA facilitated the signing of a landmark declaration in Johannesburg against conversion practices in Africa, asserting the importance of protecting LGBTQ+ individuals from these harmful practices.

In response to the ongoing harm caused by conversion therapy and other misguided practices, PsySSA in 2025 also released updated guidelines that provide mental health professionals with evidence-based standards to support sexually and gender-diverse people without judgment or attempts to change who they are.

The science is clear: queer people do not need to be “fixed.” They need to be affirmed, protected, and loved.

The Time for Change Is Now

South Africa has long been a beacon for LGBTQ+ rights on paper — but paper promises are not enough. Real protection demands bold legislation, proactive education, and cultural transformation within homes, churches, and communities.

As one survivor put it, “They tried to take away who I was. But I survived. And now, I will never let anyone silence me again.”

Until conversion therapy is banned outright and discredited in every space it hides, the promise of equality and dignity for LGBTQ+ people will remain painfully incomplete.