Conversion/Reparative Therapies: Exploring the Political Shifts in Pakistan’s Queer Community

The ability to change one’s sexual orientation or gender identity through medical or religious methods is an extremely questionable practice. It works to recruit voluntary people (often involuntary in the case of states where homosexuality is illegal and anti-LGBTQ + laws precede) and subject them to extreme practices so that they can conform with the norms of the Pakistani society. However, the question lingers, whether the result of such claims is as successful as it is in getting its “patients” and what effect do these “therapies” have on their political orientations? This study explores the psychological and political impacts of conversion therapies—both medical and religious—on queer individuals in Pakistan, where such practices persist despite international condemnation. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, data were collected in 2024 through snowball sampling, including surveys with 30 LGBTQ + individuals and semi-structured interviews with three key informants in the social sciences. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative responses underwent thematic analysis grounded in social constructivism and human security theory, we will argue in our paper that conversion therapies have a transformative effect on the political mindset of queer community in Pakistan. There is absence or very minimal academic discourse on this topic in religiously and socially conservative Pakistani society, leaving a large gap to be explored in gender studies. The corollary of our main argument will also reflect on the ethical side of such practices in Pakistani state.