NON-ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Improving spiritual healthcare for LGBTQA+ Australians: A community report
This is the is the final community report from a series of studies into lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and asexual (LGBTQA+) conversion practices in Australia.
The report provides a brief overview of findings from a major national survey of LGBTQA+ Australians’ religious experiences, including experiences of LGBTQA+ conversion practices.
Jones, T. W., Power, J., Jones, T., Anderson, J., Despott, N., Pallotta-Chiarolli, M., Gurtler, P., & Migliorini, C. (2024). Improving Spiritual Health Care for LGBTQA+ Australians: Beyond Conversion Practices. A Community Report. Melbourne; La Trobe University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/7439R
.png/:/cr=t:5.56%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:88.89%25/rs=w:1209,h:605,cg:true)
The Impact of Conversion Practices on Same-Sex Attracted People
Practices that intend to change or suppress an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity are harmful and have complex impacts on survivors. Understanding the nature of contemporary conversion practices can assist healthcare providers to support survivors in their recovery.
Blog for the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association
(April 2022) - Click here to read.
Anderson, J. R. (2022). The Impact of Conversion Practices on Same-Sex Attracted People. Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association. https://anzmh.asn.au/blog/the-impact-of-conversion-practices-on-same-sex-attracted-people
.png/:/cr=t:5.56%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:88.89%25/rs=w:1209,h:605,cg:true)
How Harmful are Conversion Practices for Transgender People?
Transgender conversion practices occur when individuals are encouraged to repress their gender identity, present as cisgender, or are kept from transitioning. Transgender people are differently impacted and have different risk factors for exposure to conversion practices compared to their cisgender peers, and as such require specific care and support from mental healthcare providers.
Blog for the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association
(May 2022) - Click here to read.
Gurtler, P. (2022). How Harmful are Conversion Practices for Transgender People?. Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Association. https://anzmh.asn.au/blog/how-harmful-are-conversion-practices-for-transgender-people
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Better understanding of the scope and nature of LGBTQA+ religious conversion practices will support recovery
While it is difficult to estimate the number of people affected by conversion practices in Australia, international research has suggested that up to 14% of people who identify as LGBTQA+ have had some exposure to conversion practices. Conversion practices, both formal and informal, cause significant mental health harms. As evidence and understanding of these harms increase and governments enact responses, there is a need for the health sector to be engaged with these issues so that practitioners are appropriately prepared to recognise, support and respect survivors in ways that are affirming of sexual and gender diversity.
https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/217_03/mja251441.pdf
Citation:
Power, J., Jones, T. W., Jones, T., Despott, N., Pallotta‐Chiarolli, M., & Anderson, J. (2022). Better understanding of the scope and nature of LGBTQA+ religious conversion practices will support recovery. Medical Journal of Australia. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.51441
Supporting LGBTQA+ peoples’ recovery from sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts
This paper reports on a critical survivor-driven study exploring how Australian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual (LGBTQA+) adults attempt recovery from religious Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Change Efforts (SOGIECE), and what supports they find useful in this process. The study privileged the critical communal lens of self-titled survivors of perspectives through its reference group, and applied Bronfenbrenner’s psycho-social lens, in an effort to ensure research used by psychologists was for and with survivors rather than on them.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00050067.2022.2093623
Citation:
Jones, T., Power, J., Jones, T. W., Pallotta-Chiarolli, M., & Despott, N. (2022). Supporting LGBTQA+ peoples’ recovery from sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts. Australian Psychologist, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050067.2022.2093623
Religious trauma and moral injury from LGBTQA+ conversion practices
Religion-based LGBTQA + conversion practices frame all people as potential heterosexuals whose gender aligns with their birth sex (in a cisgender binary model of male and female sexes). Deviation from this heterosexual cisgender social identity model is cast as curable ‘sexual brokenness’. However, research shows conversion practices are harmful, and particularly associated with increased experiences of abuse, mental health diagnoses, and suicidality. This paper explores their contribution to the particular harms of moral injury and religious trauma, drawing firstly on the foundational moral injury literature to offer a unique conceptual framework of spiritual harm and moral injury, and secondly on a rare qualitative 2016–2021 study of the spiritual harms reported in semi-structured interviews of 42 survivors of LGBTQA + change and suppression practices in Australia. The paper examines the survivors' support needs around the nature and extent of religious trauma and moral injury, to inform services working towards supporting their recovery from such experiences and their resolution of conflicts deeply bound in their sense of self and belonging. It argues that impairment of conversion survivors' relationships with religious communities, and religious self-concepts, point to the need for additional improvements in pastoral practice.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362200346X
Citation:
Jones, T. W., Power, J., & Jones, T. M. (2022). Religious trauma and moral injury from LGBTQA+ conversion practices. Social Science & Medicine, 115040. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115040
Healing Spiritual Harms: Supporting Recovery From LGBTQA+ Change and Suppression Practices
This research report presents findings from a project conducted in partnership with the Brave Network, the Australian LGBTIQ+ Multicultural Council (AGMC) and the Victorian Government on recovery support needs of survivors of LGBTQA+ change and suppression (conversion) practices. It is comprised of the stories of harm and recovery from 35 survivors of LGBTQA+ change and suppression practices, and 18 mental health practitioners who shared their experiences of supporting survivors’ recovery and critically
reflected on their professional practice.
Citation:
Jones, T.W., Jones, T.M, Power, J., Despott, N., & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2021). Healing Spiritual Harms: Supporting Recovery from LGBTQA+ Change and Suppression Practices. The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University.