‘I survived conversion therapy – but I still feel incredible shame’

Conversion therapy has been discredited and denounced as harmful by over 25 health and psychotherapy organisations in the UK, yet it still happens today (Picture: Getty)

‘You are an abomination to God! The evil demon of homosexuality is controlling you and we pray now for it to be banished!’

Gail jolted awake, drenched in sweat. Two weeks had passed since strangers surrounded her in a prayer circle in a bid to ‘cure’ her,yet every night she found herself back in that room.

Tactics like this, which seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or transgender identity, are known today as conversion practices. They include so-called conversion therapy which has been discredited and denounced a...