Topline
In addition to being “discriminatory” and “profoundly harmful,” LGBTQ+ conversion therapy costs the U.S. an estimated $9.23 billion each year, according to a peer reviewed study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics which for the first time calculates the economic costs of the practice as a growing number of states move to restrict access to gender-affirming medical care and introduce legislation targeting LGBTQ+ groups.
Campaigners against LGBT+ conversion therapy attend a picket outside the UK’s Cabinet Office and … [+]
Key Facts
In the U.S., an estimated $650 million is spent on conversion therapy, the umbrella term for a range of practices performed to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, each year, including health insurance reimbursements, payment for services and donations or fees associated with religious forms of the practice, according to a comprehensive review of research and economic analysis by researchers at nonprofit The Trevor Project and economists at Cytel.
The harms associated with the practice cost far more, the researchers found, an estimated $8.58 billion each year.
According to the study, suicide attempts ($2.42 billion) and substance abuse ($2.18 billion) made up over half of the estimated economic burden of conversion therapy and other associated harms include fatal suicide ($1.17 billion), alcohol use disorder ($1.26 billion) and depression (1.36 billion).
Replacing conversion therapy with affirmative therapy—which validates and advocates for LGBTQ+ individuals—would save an estimated $6.19 billion annually, the researchers found, and simply stopping conversion therapy would save an estimated $4.38 billion.
Though the mental health risks of conversion therapy “have long been suspected,” the study’s lead researcher Dr. Anna Forsythe said the paper is the first to quantify “the staggering cost of this therapy in financial terms.”
Forsythe said it is the team’s hope that the analysis can be used as “an objective tool to help decision makers evaluate the massive impact this therapy continues to exact on not only the victims, but on society as a whole.”
Crucial Quote
“Although conversion therapy has been demonstrated to be ineffective, and often harmful, it is still being used in 2022,” wrote Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy in a linked editorial. Olson-Kennedy, the medical director of The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, was not involved in the study and said the practice caused a “myriad” of problems including shame, substance use, anxiety, and suicidality. She added it was “bothersome” that a study was needed to outline the financial burden of conversion therapy, “because the human toll is simply not enough to eradicate the dangerous practice of forcing individuals to conform to the heterosexual and cisgender normative expectation.”
Key Background
Conversion therapy has been linked to poor mental health and a greater risk for suicide. Casey Pick, the Trevor Project’s senior fellow for advocacy and government affairs, said the broader economic costs for society are “just starting to be understood.” Experts and professional groups, including the American Psychological Association, consistently oppose the practice as damaging and ineffective. The “unimaginable” human toll of conversion therapy alone has “apparently not been high enough” for the practice to be banned across the U.S., Olson-Kennedy said, noting that 25 states have no bans on the practice at all. Of the remainder, Olson-Kennedy said 20 legally banned the practice and five partially banned it. The issue of affirming gender identity and sexual orientation, especially among children, has become a political flashpoint and a growing number of states are considering legislation that would target LGBTQ+ groups. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign defended his directive calling for the parents of transgender children who have received gender-affirming care to be investigated for child abuse, calling the issue a political “winner.”
Big Number
698,000. That’s how many LGBTQ+ adults (ages 18-59) in the U.S. have received conversion therapy, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law. Around 16,000 LGBTQ+ youth will be subjected to the practice by the time they turn 18 in the 32 states not banning the practice. An additional 57,000 are likely to be subject to the practice from religious or spiritual advisors by the time they reach 18, the group warned, as the groups are often not covered by laws prohibiting the practice by licensed professionals.
If you or someone you know needs help or support, The Trevor Project’s trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.
Further Reading
Humanistic and Economic Burden of Conversion Therapy on LGBTQ Youth in the United States: A Systematic Literature Review and an Economic Evaluation (JAMA Pediatrics)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/03/07/dangerous-discredited-lgbtq-conversion-therapy-costs-us-more-than-9-billion-each-year-study-finds/