Conversion practices–commonly referred to as conversion therapy–constitute the damaging efforts to change queer individuals’ sexual orientations and/or gender identities and expressions. Despite the common misapprehension that conversion practices are a thing of the past–in North America, at least–such anti-queer efforts persist and continue to wreak havoc on countless members of LGBTQ+ communities, particularly those in high-control Christian contexts. Wilson will present a broadened definition of conversion practices before discussing the prevalence of conversion practices in North America and why the number of reported cases is likely inaccurate. Wilson will flesh out the ways by which conversion practitioners seek the eradication of LGBTQ+ communities.
About the Speaker:
Lucas Wilson is an SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto Mississauga and was formerly the Justice, Equity, and Transformation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary. He is the editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy. His public-facing writing has appeared in The Advocate, Queerty, LGBTQ Nation, and Religion Dispatches, among other venues. He is currently working on a new edited collection about LGBTQ+ experiences at Christian colleges, universities, seminaries, and divinity schools (under contract with The University of Georgia Press).
Contact:
Lucas Wilson
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