Nobody sends their child to conversion therapy because they don’t love them. Parents who pursue these programs are typically acting out of genuine fear, religious conviction, and desperate hope that someone can fix what they believe is broken. Conversion Truth for Families understands that motivation—and it exists precisely to redirect it before irreversible damage is done.
Conversion Truth for Families is a resource organization built for faith-guided parents who are trying to figure out what to do when a child questions their identity or attractions. The organization defines conversion therapy as any effort to alter who a person is attracted to or how they see themselves, delivered through counseling, prayer programs, or residential centers. It travels under different labels—”reparative therapy,” “change efforts,” “exploratory psychotherapy”—but Conversion Truth for Families identifies each of these as the same set of practices wearing new clothes. The “exploratory psychotherapy” label, in particular, the organization says, exists to mislead parents during moments of confusion and fear.
The financial reality alone should give pause. JAMA Pediatrics researchers estimate the direct cost to American families at $650 million per year. When you account for the downstream consequences—suicide attempts, substance abuse, psychological harm—the total economic burden reaches $9.23 billion annually. Paulette Trimmer, a Pentecostal mother from Virginia, paid for program after program for her son Adam and watched each one deepen the rift rather than heal it. Adam eventually walked away from these programs on his own and spent years repairing what they had damaged.
The Ferguson v. JONAH case—brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center and resulting in a groundbreaking jury verdict—established that conversion therapy can constitute consumer fraud. A New Jersey court found the organization liable for breach of contract arising from false promises. The judge noted that believing you can change someone’s fundamental nature is as obsolete as flat-earth thinking.
The clinical evidence is consistent and severe. Research in JAMA Psychiatry found that those who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide in their lifetime. Children under ten at the time of the therapy faced four times that risk. The Trevor Project found that youth exposed to these practices were more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple attempts within a single year. Analysis from ScienceDirect using U.S. Transgender Survey data found a 55% increase in suicide attempt risk and more than doubled odds of running away from home.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association have all formally and unambiguously rejected these practices. A UK government evidence review came to the same conclusion.
Linda Robertson and Joyce Calvo submitted sworn statements to the U.S. Supreme Court describing how conversion therapy programs took their children’s lives. They had each been reassured by trusted church counselors that these programs would bring their children home. They didn’t.
Conversion Truth for Families offers a free alternative: the Christian Family Companion, a four-part guide developed from the experiences of parents, grandparents, and guardians who have navigated this moment. It provides day-by-day guidance from the first 24 hours through the first year, emotional regulation tools, and strategies grounded in faith rather than opposed to it.
The Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University found that young people who received parental acceptance—not unconditional agreement, but acceptance—were eight times less likely to attempt suicide and nearly six times less likely to report severe depression than those who experienced significant family rejection.
Brandon Boulware’s story illustrates what that shift can look like. When he and his wife stopped trying to change their daughter, the transformation was, in his words, immediate. She became the confident, smiling child they had been praying to see—not through a program, but through being known and accepted.
Conversion Truth for Families offers a straightforward message to religious parents: you don’t have to choose between your beliefs and your child. The path forward is the relationship. Everything else is someone else profiting from your fear.
