Arun*, 21, recalls the time he came out to his father about his bisexuality back in January last year. His father’s kneejerk reaction at the time had been one of denial, followed by repeated attempts to “change” his son, who is a resident of Delhi.
Soon after, Arun was forcibly taken to see a baba (spiritual healer) at a temple. The day was a blur, he says, but what little he could remember involved seeing the healer sitting on the ground, surrounded by a circle of seven or eight others, including children.
“The baba started making whooshing gestures. The few others in the room started whispering things into each other’s ears. I had a panic attack then and there and ran out of the place without knowing where I was going to go,” says Arun.
Hurriedly, he made a few calls. One of them was to a woman who advocates for queer rights. Over the next few months, she spoke to Arun’s father, counselling him about the regressive practice, until he finally dropped the idea.
“I don’t blame him. He didn’t know any better,” says Arun, adding that someone at his father’s workplace had told him about this method of conversion therapy.
The incident took place only months after the National Medical Council (NMC) declared that conversion therapy was an act of “professional misconduct” in September 2022. The NMC’s move was prompted by a landmark ruling by the Madras High Court in a case related to a same-sex couple seeking protection from their parents.
According to the high court’s verdict, conversion therapy is an attempt to “cure” an individual’s sexual orientation or gender expression through milder methods like therapies or prayer, as well as extreme measures including exorcisms, physical violence, and food deprivation. The practice is used as an attempt to suppress a person’s identity, the ruling said.
‘Inappropriate move’
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard a special leave petition filed by the partner of a lesbian woman challenging a Kerala High Court directive that had asked the woman to undergo counselling. The woman had earlier sought relief from the High Court, alleging that her partner was being illegally detained by her parents. The court had subsequently directed the partner to attend a “counselling session at an authorised counselling centre”.
Responding to the leave petition, the Supreme Court said: “Ascertaining the wish of a person is one thing. It would be quite inappropriate to overcome the identity and sexual orientation of an individual through a process of purported counselling”.
The apex court had, in October last year as well, reiterated the NMC’s stand to ban conversion therapy.
Persisting practice
However, suggestions of conversion therapy, whether by a court of law or family member, remain prevalent in society. Last year, the Delhi Commission for Women received a complaint from a family asking the panel to “cure” their daughter for wanting to live with her female partner.
“The girl’s father had approached me, saying that homosexuality is a disease. He said he had locked her up. We immediately contacted the girl and rescued her,” recalls Swati Maliwal, the former chairperson of the commission, adding that this “typical” reaction on the part of most parents arises from the lack of awareness on the subject.
Rahul*, a trans man from a city in south India, says he developed chronic headaches as a result of three months of various massages and talk therapies inflicted on him by an ayurvedic doctor whom he was taken to by his parents as a “last resort” to “cure” him. Assigned female at birth, Rahul identifies as a male. But as the practitioner tried to change his orientation, the “remedies” only got worse, Rahul says. “One day, the doctor told me to put a flower on my vagina and repeat to myself that I must embrace my femininity,” he says, adding that he, of course, did not comply.
Only after Rahul’s family and doctor saw the detrimental effect of the therapies on his health did they stop. The incident, ironically, signalled a point of no return for him, and only made him surer of his identity. Currently in his 20s, he hopes to go abroad and build a new life where he can marry and have children, both of which he says are “not possible” in this country.
When 30-year-old Delhiite Jane Kaushik came out to her family as a trans woman five years ago, she was met with similar resistance. She was prescribed medicines and food that would supposedly alter her identity, she says, adding that it took years of convincing on her part to get her parents to accept her for who she is. “Such practitioners should understand that some people in our society place more trust in them than actual doctors. They can’t comprehend how misleading the situation can be and how easily people get influenced,” she says.
A way forward
While there is a long journey ahead, some practitioners working toward creating awareness around queer-friendly practices offer a ray of hope.
One such enterprise is the Mariwala Health Initiative, which has been offering courses on queer-affirmative counselling practices since 2019. Pooja Nair, a Bengaluru-based psychologist involved with the project, says, “Many people are still forced into conversion therapy after coming out to their families. Besides doctors, they are also taken to religious leaders, which can be painful since they are made to feel like they are in conflict with their religion due to their identity.”
Shruti Chakravarty, who put together the team that developed the course, says that the only solution is for practitioners to understand that all sexualities are normal. However, while there should be strict action against such “doctors”, persecution would likely only take the practice underground, she adds. “The only possible fix is that we have to change their attitude. Society has to agree, too, and as long as society does not evolve, there will be many such health practitioners advocating for conversion therapy,” she says.
(*Names have been changed to protect identity)
