Therapists linked to US Christian conservative groups are telling LGBTQ people in Costa Rica that homosexuality is “wrong” and that only a “sadistic God” would create a gay person, an openDemocracy investigation reveals today.
Therapists connected to Focus on the Family, founded in 1977 by the ultra-conservative psychologist James Dobson, and Exodus Global Alliance, the global wing of the disbanded and controversial ‘ex-gay’ movement Exodus International, made the comments while ‘treating’ or offering to ‘treat’ undercover reporters posing as gay or lesbian people.
‘Conversion therapy’ is an umbrella term to describe “interventions of a wide-ranging nature, all of which are premised on the belief that a person's sexual orientation and gender identity, including gender expression, can and should be changed or suppressed”, according to a UN report. The report continues: “Such practices are […] aimed at effecting a change from non-heterosexual to heterosexual and from trans or gender diverse to cisgender.”
