Gay conversion therapy is a psychologically harmful practice that can lead to suicide which tries to change gay people straight. Religions use prayer and pseudoscience for their own agendas. Medical groups and psychologists have come out against the use of gay conversion therapy, but it's still legal in many states across the US. Sheldon Helms describes the history of religious and some medical community's attempts to define homosexuality as an illness and to make gays go straight. As our country tackles the issues of marriage equality, gays in the military and the inclusion of gays and lesbians into mainstream society, and as Russia and other nations enforce laws limiting the rights of their gay and lesbian citizens, fringe religious and therapeutic organizations have operated mostly in the shadows. Organizations like NARTH use an improper understanding of the DSM 5 to push their agenda of gay to straight therapy. Interested in finding out what you can do to stop gay conversion therapy? Visit www.thetrevorproject.org/ Sheldon Helms is a professor of experimental psychology at Ohlone College in Fremont, California, where he serves as senior faculty member in the psychology department. Sheldon is the vice president of the Bay Area Skeptics and serves on the planning committee for the annual SkeptiCal Conference. Want to find out more? Read CFI’s interview with Sheldon: www.goo.gl/t4w591 Check out more of our reasonable talks: reasonabletalk.tv The Center for Inquiry is a non-profit advocacy group that for over 30 years have brought together communities and leading thinkers to promote science, atheism, freethinking, and humanism. Find out more information on how CFI is working to protect reason and science: www.centerforinquiry.net This talk took place at CSICon in Las Vegas, on Saturday, October 28th, 2017

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