Lohanthony, Soft Conversion Therapy, and Alana Chen’s Suicide
By: James Finn
Tags: LGBTQ, Mental Health, Christianity, Equality, Religion

Christian conversion therapy started hardcore

As LGBTQ acceptance became more and more ordinary in the latter part of the twentieth century, conservative Christian institutions responded by offering techniques to help LGBTQ people of faith reconcile spiritual dissonance by turning themselves straight. By the late 1980s and early 90s, Christian “reparative” or conversion therapy had become very popular, with leaders like Alan Chambers claiming a combination of spiritual counseling and psychological techniques had proven highly effective.

By that time, however, mental health professional associations in North America were already warning that conversion therapy was ineffective and intensely harmful. Predictably, therefore, the rise of the Christian conversion therapy movement led to tragic outcomes. Many LGBTQ Christians suffered intense harm, with extreme negative mental health outcomes running a gamut from depressive disorders to high rates of suicide.

In recent years, that “hard” conversion therapy movement has largely collapsed, its strongest proponents coming out as gay and admitting they were never able to change their own attractions or anyone else’s. Many high-profile leaders have apologized and now live openly with same-sex partners.

Softer forms of conversion therapy take over

The conservative-Christian response to the ex-gay collapse has not been to surrender and welcome LGBTQ people into the fold. Instead, many churches have rebranded their change efforts into softer forms of conversion therapy that make less explicit promises. One such soft movement, founded in part by minister and author Ed Shaw, calls itself “Christian Celibacy.”

But while Shaw and others promise spiritual joy and fulfillment to celibate LGBTQ people, actual results have been shown to be as negative and dangerous as hard conversion therapy. Depressive disorders and suicide risk remain high.

Celibacy and mental health among LGBTQ people

When Lohanthony brought the term Christian Celibacy into the mainstream, announcing to his million-plus subscribers that he is rejecting his sexual orientation in favor of a life without sex or romance, he linked being gay to negative outcomes like drug and alcohol abuse, sex addiction, and obsessions with money and public attention:

It’s no coincidence that through pursuing my same-sex attraction I was also addicted to alcohol, I was also addicted to weed, I was also trying hallucinogenics, I was also addicted to money, I was also addicted to views, I was addicted to attention.

In linking negative behaviors with being gay, Quintal echoed many of the false claims of the Christian Celibacy movement. Actual evidence, however, suggests that LGBTQ youth who enjoy family and social acceptance are as likely to be mentally healthy as their peers.

But what about explicit claims that Christian Celibacy often leads to happiness and fulfillment for people wired to form romantic attachments with people of the same gender? Evidence suggests those claims are wrong. Indeed, the opposite appears to be true.

What happens if the cross falls and crushes me?

One peer-reviewed study published in an APA journal found great peril waiting for lesbians and gay men in the so-called “Christian Celibacy” movement. For most of the LGBTQ participants in the study, attempting celibacy resulted in dissonance and “substantial” challenges that harmed their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

The APA paper, titled “What happens if the cross falls and crushes me,” concludes that the celibacy movement is misleading, rarely delivers the outcomes counselors promise, and often leads to depression and suicidal ideation.

Alana Chen: celibacy leads to suicide

Alana Chen was a teenager with a secret. She once wrote in her journal that she had a story to tell nobody would listen to. She was a lesbian who yearned to spend her life in a loving relationship with a woman. She was also a faithful Catholic who yearned to follow the teachings of her church.

Her dissonance led to her undoing.

Alana didn’t come out to her family, but as a teenager she confessed her same-sex attractions to her parish priest, who began a process of religious counseling Alana’s family knew nothing about. He asked her to keep it a secret from them, saying he was afraid they might accept her sexual orientation.

Alana and her family later described the counseling, which eventually involved many different practitioners, as conversion therapy — although the counselors involved reject that terminology. Everyone involved in the case, from a group of nuns who counseled her on celibacy, to a popular “hipster” priest who instructed her not to take communion until she conquered same-sex attraction, say they believed they were working in Alana’s best interest.

They taught her that a life of celibacy would be more joyful and rewarding than a life of “sin.”

Alana’s mental health problems first broke into the open in 2016, years after she began trying to suppress her sexuality. She revealed suicidal thoughts to her family and was admitted into a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

That’s when she told her mother she had spent years in secret counseling to suppress her strong desires for a life of human love and romantic companionship.

Alana’s mother was shocked and outraged. She says she would never have let Alana enter any form of conversion therapy if she’d known about it. She places the blame for her daughter’s depression and suicidal urges squarely on the counseling, saying Alana believed “she could never have a relationship with a woman, and it was killing her.”

The celibacy counseling eventually did kill Alana.

Her body was found at Gross Reservoir in Boulder County, Colorado on Dec. 9, 2019. She was 24 years old, and according to the National Catholic Reporter, her suicide “has focused attention on how religious institutions tackle sexuality in counseling sessions,” especially when the counseling teaches that homosexuality is wrong or sinful.

Despite negative outcomes , soft conversion therapy continues

Lohanthony’s recent endorsement of the Christian Celibacy movement is likely to win it even more converts. But like other forms of soft conversion therapy, Christian Celibacy offers a false promise to LGBTQ people.

For decades, religious leaders have been promising transgender and gay people that spiritual practices and psychological counseling can change who they are and lead to lives of joy. For decades, those promises have proven harmful for the vast majority of people who’ve bought into them.

Celibacy cannot “fix” what is not broken

Human beings almost universally crave romantic, sexually intimate relationships. We’re wired for it, created for it if you prefer the language of faith.

Christians have traditionally regarded celibacy as a rare spiritual gift reserved for a small minority of especially strong or blessed people. Imposing celibacy on the unwilling or unable has never been part of Christian tradition.

Imposing or encouraging celibacy on all LGBTQ Christians runs counter not only to the human condition but to ancient faith traditions that recognize the potential for harm. LGBTQ people are not broken. We’re ordinary human beings blessed with ordinary yearning for human intimacy.

Many Christians have come to understand that it’s not possible to “fix” what God has created. Many Christians have come to understand that trying to change the nature of LGBTQ people is harmful and counter to God’s plans.

Soft forms of conversion therapy like Christian Celibacy do great harm to a great number of people. I hope one day Anthony Quintal comes to understand that and apologizes for hurting people, the same way Alan Chambers has apologized.

In the meantime, Christian LGBTQ people and allies can help by working hard to spread the positive message that to be LGBTQ is to be fully and naturally human. Living and loving as we are leads to full and natural joy, just as God intends.