In 1935, Sigmund Freud was approached by a woman looking to have her gay son converted, to which he responded with a letter entitled “A Letter to An American Mother.”

According to The Huffington Post, Freud said that homosexuality is not an advantage, but it is nothing of which to be ashamed and cannot be classified as an illness.

Freud was an early ally to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer (LGBTQ) community by accepting the fact that being homosexual is not a disease or an illness. He also disproved the idea that being homosexual affects intelligence.

Still, to this day, gay conversion therapy is performed as a way of attempting to turn a homosexual person into a heterosexual. Conversion therapy exists because people believe that being heterosexual is normal and homosexuality is unnatural and deviant.

Gay conversion therapy, however, is unnatural and should be illegal. Homosexuality is not an illness, and conversion therapy is inhumane and mentally scarring.

However, some people believe that being anything other than heterosexual means the person is broken and needs to be fixed. They also believe being gay is a sin, and that people are only homosexual because of childhood sexual abuse.

All of these, of course, fail to founded in fact rather bigotry and homophobia.

There are many forms of conversion therapy, such as electroshock therapy, touch therapy, pornography exposure, vomit-induction therapy, conventional talk therapy, prayer, re-education, hypnosis, aversion therapy and even castration. Most of the time the parent or legal guardian of a child forces them to go through these treatments because there is no law protecting minors against it.

The conversion methods that extremists use are inhumane and some qualify as torture.

Conversion therapy is not only for gay people but also transgender people. Some kids forced to go through conversion therapy become so ashamed and depressed that they end up committing suicide.

As adolescents, self-esteem can be fragile, especially when you are part of LGBTQ community. Adults forcing their children to go through conversion are not taking into consideration that their child will most likely be mentally scarred for the rest of their life.