For years, conversion therapy has been marked as inefficient and a serious risk to the health of victims who undergo it. Every major psychiatric association condemns conversion therapy, stating that a sexual orientation should not be changed and rather be accepted. The American Psychiatric Association states that it doesn’t believe “same-sex orientation should or needs to be changed, and efforts to do so represent a significant risk of harm by subjecting individuals to forms of treatment which have not been scientifically validated and by undermining self-esteem when sexual orientation fails to change. No credible evidence exists that any mental health intervention can reliably and safely change sexual orientation; nor, from a mental health perspective does sexual orientation need to be changed.” Conversion therapy integrates shame and phsycial pain into it’s practice, in an attempt to make the patient associate negative feelings with their sexual orientation. This has been proven to not work, and instead cause psychological trauma in victims of it. By allowing conversion therapy in Indiana, we allow LGBTQ youth to be subject to mental, and sometimes physical, torture. Although changing the state laws is difficult, having West Lafayette ban conversion therapy could pressure other cities, and then the state, to follow suit.