Incurably queer? An approach to research on conversion therapies in Germany

Conversion therapies comprise “all treatments carried out on humans aimed at changing or suppressing sexual orientation or self-perceived gender identity”. That is how the Gesetz zum Schutz vor Konversionsbehandlungen (KonvBehSchG §1 (1), Law on Protection Against Conversion Treatments), which came into force in Germany on 24 June 2020, defines it.

To date, in the Federal Republic of Germany, only decentralised knowledge about this matter exists, generated primarily in activist contexts. Only since 2019 has the Wissenschaftliche Bestandsaufname zu Konversionsbehandlungen (Scientific Inventory of Conversion Therapies) been curated and published by the Magnus Hirschfeld Federal Foundation as part of the legislative process.¹

To fill the gap in the academic debate and systematically provide more information about the prevalence, methods and experiences of LBTBQIA+² people with conversion therapies, the project “Konversionsbehandlungen: Kontexte. Praktiken. Biografien” (Conversion Treatments: Contexts. Practices. Biographies), organised by Mosaik Deutschland e.V. in cooperation with the Amt für Chancengleichheit (Office for Equal Opportunities) of the City of Heidelberg, began its work on 1 October 2022. It is funded by the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Health.

The project is supported and monitored by an Advisory Board consisting of representatives of the LBTBQIA+ community, specialist institutions for central queer topics, such as education, counselling, law and organisations focussing on LBTBQIA+ and religion as well as scientific experts.³

The project uses three different approaches to research the phenomenon of “conversion therapies”. In addition to narrative-biographical interviews with survivors of conversion measures and structured interviews with people with particular expertise in the field, a quantitative online survey was designed and conducted (presented in more detail below). We also describe the strategic and practical research challenges here.

A central challenge for the research design was the realisation that no systematic discussion of conversion therapies is presently ongoing in Germany, either publicly or within the LBTBQIA+ community. This limits the relevant practises and events to phenomena such as exorcisms and exorcising demons in certain religious contexts (a result also of the extremely low level of public reporting). As a result, many queer-hostile acts intended as conversion measures are not recognised and designated as such. Thus, for two reasons, it is necessary to clarify the resulting grey area, also reflected in the choice of the concept of “queer hostility” in the survey. First, victims/survivors can seek specialised help only if they (and the support services) can identify what they are experiencing or have experienced. Second, the very existence of such a grey area encourages the reinforcement and expansion of a darkfield.

The research strategy chosen to realise this connection was not to link the survey primarily to the concept of conversion treatments but to adopt a broad approach to gain as many participants as possible. To this end, the survey instrument had the form of a funnel that leads from general experiences with queer hostility in one’s own biography to (possible) experiences with conversion measures. This approach also considers that some people are experiencing or have experienced conversion measures without being able to label them as such. A second necessary differentiation lies in separating the areas of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in the survey, as the phenomenon of conversion treatment differs fundamentally in many areas for these two contexts.

Over 3,500 people between the ages of 18 and 70 who consider themselves lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, inter*, queer, nonbinary*, aromantic, asexual or part of the community took part in the “Incurably Queer” survey. One of the initial findings is that the antiqueer idea that sexual orientations and gender identities can be changed is still widespread. It occurs in many different areas of life – at home, at school or in medical contexts. Queer people are particularly confronted with it during the vulnerable phase of coming out.4

The high participation rate in the survey and the initial data indicate a great need for further research and educational programmes for various specialist contexts in this area.

 

 

¹ This publication can be retrieved at mh-stiftung.de/wp-content/uploads/Abschlussbericht_BMH_neu.pdf (last accessed on 16 July 2023).

² The abbreviation LBTBQIA+ refers to people who consider themselves to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, inter*, queer, nonbinary*, aromantic, asexual or part of the community

³ An overview of all the institutions and individuals represented on the Advisory Board can be found at https://www.befragung-unheilbar-queer.de/beirat/ 

⁴ Further initial results may be found at https://www.liebesleben.de/fachkraefte/studien-standard-qualitaetssicherung/queer-in-deutschland-wissen-und-erfahrungen-zu-konversionsbehandlungen/