Daily Telegraph
Popular in the mid-20th century, conversion therapy was a practise used to try and change a person’s sexual orientation, from homosexual to heterosexual. The therapy was practised in a number of ways including beatings, electrocution, forced medication, verbal abuse, and even rape and lobotomy and is based on the Conversion therapy theory that a homosexual person is in some way damaged and can be “cured”.
While it has been banned in Queensland, the ACT and Victoria and has been condemned by the Australian Psychological Society, the Australian Medical Association and the United Nations, it is still practised in other parts of Australia.