The horrors of queer conversion therapy in India

Dear reader,

Common Ground returns this week after a break from publishing.
It has been four years since the Supreme Court effectively decriminalised homosexuality, and eight years since the court legally recognised trans persons as being of a third gender. Technically, Indian citizens cannot be prosecuted for their gender identity or sexual orientation.

But this does not mean that members of the LGBTQIA+ community enjoy the same freedoms as others. Rather, they are frequently subjected to a variety of unscientific, humiliating and often dangerous, "treatments” that are aimed at changing them. One psychologist who works closely with the queer community estimated that as many as 80% of queer individuals undergo some form of "conversion therapy", depending on how the term is defined.

Nolina Minj spoke to several individuals who have suffered through such processes, often at the behest of their families, and who have had to fight and overcome deep traumas as a result of them. Most are now undergoing queer affirmative therapy, which they find helpful and healing. You can read the story here.

Our previous stories are archived here. If you would like to support our in-depth and investigative journalism, do consider making a contribution to the Scroll Ground Reporting Fund.

Ajay Krishnan
Senior Editor

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