Affirming Everyone in the Rainbow: Is Gender-Affirming Healthcare "Gay Conversion Therapy?"

Abstract

Many young people today embrace gender-diverse identities, with adolescents and young adults comprising the largest and fastest-growing demographic of gender-affirming healthcare seekers. Simultaneously, gender-affirming healthcare for this demographic has been debated, and restrictions have been introduced in many jurisdictions. Within this politically charged climate, some journalists, cultural commentators, gender clinicians and politicians have leveraged rhetorical claims that gender-affirming healthcare comprises a new form of "gay conversion therapy." In this commentary, we explore the extent to which empirical evidence supports or contradicts this discourse as a real phenomenon. While we conclude that gender-affirming healthcare is not gay conversion therapy, we also draw attention to opportunities to enrich gender-affirming healthcare by embracing the complexity of sexuality and gender.