In 2026, it may seem surprising that conversion therapy—a practice aimed at changing or suppressing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity—still exists. Major medical, psychological, and human rights organizations around the world have repeatedly condemned it. Research has found little evidence that it can change a person’s sexuality, while numerous studies and survivor testimonies point to serious psychological harm.
Yet despite growing awareness, conversion therapy continues to thrive in many parts of the world, including Nigeria.
What Exactly Is Conversion Therapy?
When many people hear the term “conversion therapy,” they imagine a clinical setting where a therapist attempts to “cure” someone of being gay. While such practices have existed, conversion therapy often looks very different in reality. It can take the form of religious counseling, exorcisms, forced prayers, isolation, emotional manipulation, public confession sessions, fasting, beatings, coercive family interventions, or residential programs designed to suppress same-sex attraction.
In Nigeria, one of the most common forms of conversion therapy is what many survivors describe as “deliverance.”A person is identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or gender non-conforming and is then taken to a church, prayer camp, or religious leader for spiritual intervention. The underlying assumption is that same-sex attraction is caused by demons, possession, curses, or spiritual corruption.
The Nigerian Reality: Conversion Therapy as Deliverance
For many Nigerians, conversion therapy does not happen in a therapist’s office. It happens in churches. Stories shared by survivors often follow a familiar pattern. A young person is outed—or suspected of being queer—by family members, classmates, teachers, or community members. Panic follows. Parents become convinced that immediate intervention is necessary.And the intervention is frequently religious.
One survivor recounted being caught with another boy while attending boarding school. His parents were alerted and immediately removed him from school. Instead of receiving support, he was taken directly to a white-garment church. According to his account, he was chained, repeatedly flogged, deprived of food, and pressured into confessing that he was possessed by a “the spirit of feminine mannarisms.” The abuse only stopped after he agreed to renounce his sexuality. Years later, he remains attracted to men. What changed was not his sexual orientation. What changed was his sense of safety. Today, he lives with the psychological scars of the experience, including symptoms consistent with trauma. He has remained celibate, not because his attraction disappeared, but because fear never did.
Across social media, survivors regularly share accounts of forced deliverances, prolonged fasting, public humiliation, threats, physical punishment, and emotional abuse carried out under the banner of spiritual healing. There have been many hush hush stories on individuals sent to religious conversion therapy, and getting sexually assaulted by the very people meant to be ‘helping’ them.This highlights a recurring concern raised by many survivors: environments built on secrecy, shame, coercion, and unchecked authority can create opportunities for abuse.
The Science Is Clear
The persistence of conversion therapy is particularly troubling because there is no scientific evidence that it works. Leading health organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, and numerous psychiatric associations around the world, have rejected attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation. Instead, studies have linked conversion therapy to: Increased risk of self-harm and suicidal thoughts, Depression, Anxiety, Low self-esteem, Social isolation and Trauma-related symptoms. Many survivors describe spending years trying to reconcile who they are with what they were told they should be. Some lose relationships with their families. Others lose faith communities that once formed the center of their lives. Many lose years of their lives pursuing a change that never comes.
If It Doesn’t Work, Why Does It Continue?
The answer lies at the intersection of law, culture, and the dangerous spirit of “what will people say?”
- Legal Sanction: The Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act of 2014 doesn’t just ban homosexual marriage; it demonizes the existence of LGBTQ+ people and their support systems. In an environment where being queer is illegal, victims of “deliverance” have no legal recourse. If you are being tortured in a church, who do you call when the law itself views you as a criminal?
- The Gay Demon Myth: In a deeply religious society, framing sexuality as a spiritual possession makes it a communal problem. It removes the “shame” from the child and places it on a supernatural force that must be beaten out. This gives parents a sense of control, even if that control is bought with their child’s blood and tears.
- The Business of Deliverance: There is a significant economy built around spiritual warfare. These churches and healing centers charge families significant sums for these “treatments,” profiting off parental fear and queer suffering.
Historically, many harmful practices have survived because communities believed they were necessary. Conversion therapy continues not because evidence supports it, but because deeply held beliefs often prove more resilient than facts. In societies like Nigeria where homosexuality remains highly stigmatized, families frequently face immense pressure to “fix” queer relatives. Conversion therapy becomes a socially acceptable response to that pressure.
The Cost of Shame
Perhaps the greatest harm caused by conversion therapy is not physical but psychological. At its core, conversion therapy teaches people that something fundamental about them is broken. It tells them that they must earn love through transformation. It conditions them to see themselves as problems requiring correction. For young people, particularly teenagers, these messages can shape their entire sense of identity. Many survivors report spending years struggling with guilt, self-hatred, fear, and internal conflict. Even after leaving conversion therapy, the shame often remains. The trauma can outlast the intervention itself.
What Real Support Looks Like
Support does not require agreement on every issue related to sexuality. It requires recognizing that coercion, humiliation, violence, and psychological manipulation are not legitimate forms of care.
People deserve dignity. They deserve the freedom to explore their identities without fear. They deserve families, communities, and faith spaces that do not resort to force. Whether conversion therapy takes place in a counseling office, a prayer camp, a church, or a family living room, the central question remains the same:
What happens when we prioritize changing people over understanding them? The evidence increasingly points to one answer. People get hurt. And until societies are willing to confront the beliefs that sustain conversion therapy, that harm is likely to continue. The question is no longer whether conversion therapy causes damage. The question is why, despite everything we know, so many people still believe the damage is worth it.
