Health associations warn against dangers of LGBT 'conversion therapy'

Three Indian mental health associations issued separate statements last month pointing to the dangers of 'conversion therapy' for LGBTQIA+ people

The suicide of Anjana Hareesh, a 21-year-old bisexual woman in Goa, on May 12 has brought to light the discrimination that LGBTQIA+ people in India continue to face despite legal reform and decades of activism. News reports indicate that her parents had forced this student, originally from Kerala, to undergo “conversion therapy” to alter her sexual orientation.

Why does such violence persist in India, and what can be done to prevent it? At the start of Pride Month and two years after the Supreme Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, Indian society is still struggling to