| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1298590030021260100 |
| 2 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:311:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gayaway_2.png]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:311:[[HaveAGayOldTime But I wanted to be happy!]]]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | %% Quote changed per thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1327331003042025100&page=183 |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ->'''Bart''': Mr. Smithers? I thought you were, you know — uh.\ |
| 10 | '''Smithers''': Haha, no, I'm straight — as long as I take these injections every ten minutes. ''[injects himself]'' I LOVE BOOBIES! |
| 11 | -->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' ("[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E15FutureDrama Future-Drama]]") |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The occurrence in fiction of effecting a cure for, or attempting to cure, homosexuality. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Whether the homosexual character being "cured" is male or female and ''how'' they're cured, depends more on when the work was written than on anything else. Before about 1970 (and dating so far back that it's OlderThanSteam) lesbianism was thought of not as an active attraction to women but as a [[DoesNotLikeMen neurotic, unhealthy rejection of men]] or [[UsefulNotes/{{Asexual}} even of sex entirely]] ("sex" at the time being thought of as all about men). For this reason, a lot of "cures" involved the woman finding a good man, or even a bad one (in that a lot of times the "cures" for lesbians were basically rape). Gay men's homosexuality was seen as a deeper-rooted psychological problem, often due to supposedly [[MyBelovedSmother over-indulgent mothers]] (a popular cause for all sorts of ills at the time). It's only in the past 30-40 years that the idea of male and female homosexuality having a similar cause and "cure" has come about and been shown in media. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | There are many variations on this theme, ranging from outright genetic reprogramming to just having sex with a member of the opposite sex. May draw on the RapeAndSwitch trope, in which homosexuality is a defense mechanism triggered by unwanted (and unpleasant) sexual contact. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Can be TruthInTelevision if the trope is merely alluded to, such as a [[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent homophobic character]] [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster ''mentioning'' it]] as a possible response to a gay or lesbian character's sexuality, or to [[WantedAGenderConformingChild a transgender or non-binary character]], or if an LGBT person [[{{Gayngst}} tries it but fails]]. Can be inverted, commonly in erotica and [[HetIsEw erotic]] FanFiction, to have a character be [[PersecutionFlip "cured" of heterosexuality]]. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Once quite common, this trope is increasingly becoming a {{discredited|Trope}} one due to homosexuals, in general, being moved to the realm of formerly acceptable targets as well as some cathartic backlash against the once common idea of "curing" homosexuality. There is also the growing body of research showing that homosexuality is likely to have a biological cause, and attempts to "cure" it with psychotherapy or other non-medical techniques are not only usually ineffective but can often be dangerous, and the rejection of this trope by all major medical and psychological organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association. Especially as it can raise the suicide rate of its 'patients' up to 10 times the population average. It is now illegal to subject minors to this in UsefulNotes/{{California}}, with other states following suit; additionally, conversion therapy has been found to be a violation of state consumer-protection laws (essentially, false advertising/fraud, or in trope terms, it's pure [[SnakeOilSalesman snake oil]]) in UsefulNotes/NewJersey (following a 2015 verdict), which likely portends similar findings elsewhere in the US at least (most states' consumer protection laws are worded very similarly). It's also illegal to subject anyone (minors and adults) to or advertise in Canada. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Does '''not''' include gay characters who turn out to have been bisexual all along (that is, they still find the same sex attractive, but are now in a relationship with a member of the opposite sex). Nor does it include IfItsYouItsOkay. Nor does it include [[DerivativeWorks turning]] a [[AdaptationalSexuality gay character straight]] with [[NegativeContinuity no in-story explanation at all]]. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[noreallife]] |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | !!Examples |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 30 | |
| 31 | %% [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 32 | %% * [[http://www.commercialcloset.org/common/adlibrary/video_large.cfm?AdDetail.video=241coralridgemomBIG.flv&clientID=11064 This PSA]] from Coral Ridge Ministries. |
| 33 | %% [[/folder]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 36 | * ''Manga/TheBeautifulSkiesOfHououHigh'' is a manga about a girl who likes girls. But all her girlfriends break up with her because they're both girls, even though they love each other. So her mother sends her to an [[OneGenderSchool All-Boys School]] to "cure" her... Digital Manga Publishing dropped the English release after 1 volume due to the ValuesDissonance. |
| 37 | * ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': Tsubasa Kurenai is introduced as a PsychoLesbian virulently rejecting any interest in men and stalking any girl that shows the slightest bit of kindness, including Ukyo, Akane, and [[SexShifter girl Ranma]]. Ranma and Akane spend the whole time telling Tsubasa her problem is that she needs to get a boyfriend instead. Ranma tries inviting her on a date as a girl but then coming as a guy, which Akane objects to simply because he's too inept to pull it off (and would give Ranma ''another'' unwanted suitor if it did). The "resolution" is revealing Tsubasa ''isn't'' a vocally-homosexual girl, but a [[CampStraight vocally-heterosexual crossdressing boy]]. Oddly, Ukyo assumed Tsubasa was a gay guy (she knew Tsubasa was male, but not that he knew [[{{Bifauxnen}} Ukyo]] was a girl) and didn't have any problem with it. |
| 38 | * Discussed in ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'', and played for comedy. Benitsubasa states that her "pure love" and [[ACupAngst awesome boobs]] will cure [[StraightGay Natsuo]] and make him fall in love with her. It obviously isn't going to happen, and Natsuo's other Sekirei realize and respect his true sexuality and [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] how completely stupid this plan is. |
| 39 | [[/folder]] |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 42 | * ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'': The "Godhead" arc of Robbie Morrison's run had John Clay, leader of the religious movement called the Church of Transcendence, attempt to cure Apollo and Midnighter of their homosexuality. His efforts don't do a thing, as Midnighter manages to endure the torture sessions before Swift comes to his rescue and Apollo ultimately softens Clay up in time to be killed by the Doctor. |
| 43 | * ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'': Occurs very commonly. According to him, [[RapeAndSwitch demons possess a child when he's molested and turn him gay]]. Fortunately, just by accepting Jesus as your savior, you exorcise those demons and immediately stop being gay. |
| 44 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': ''ComicBook/AlanScottTheGreenLantern'' #2 ties Alan's AdaptationalSexuality to the established backstory that the lantern was created by an inmate at Arkham Asylum by revealing that this was Alan's trans cellmate when he spent some time in Arkham's "Deviancy Wing". Alan starts off genuinely believing he needs help, but after he sees what being "cured" looks like in Billie's case, he stages a jailbreak. |
| 45 | * ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'': Hilariously {{subverted|Trope}} in [[http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2089770.html issue #40]].[[note]]The RealitySubtext is that the issue was written by Creator/BillWillingham, whose well-known conservative political views had led some readers to worry that he might actually try this in-story.[[/note]] |
| 46 | -->'''Stargirl:''' How do you feel, Todd?\ |
| 47 | '''Obsidian:''' Pretty good, all things considered. Wonderful, in fact. I'm as powerful as ever. No discernible side effects of my disability, except that I'm no longer gay, of course.\ |
| 48 | '''Green Lantern:''' Son?\ |
| 49 | '''Obsidian:''' That's right, dad! I'm cured! Isn't that great!\ |
| 50 | ''[The cast exchanges looks of bewilderment]''\ |
| 51 | '''Obsidian:''' Relax folks. Only kidding. Still gay. Seriously, I wish you could all see your faces right now. |
| 52 | * ''ComicBook/SwampThing'': Parodied in ''Swamp Thing'' Vol. 2 #165, an out-of-continuity {{Satire}} on mid-[[TheNineties nineties]] American conservatism. As part of his pendulum shift from [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippiedom]], Chester Williams instantly undoes his ex-girlfriend's lesbianism with a single kiss. Cue MatchCut to the two of them kissing at their wedding. |
| 53 | * ''ComicBook/XMen'': The comic never had to deal with this... literally, anyway. Mutants are [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] used as [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster a metaphor for homosexuality]], and there have been a number of storylines where someone tries to cure the mutant gene, which almost always backfires. [[[Characters/MarvelComicsEmmaFrost Emma Frost]] discusses this trope with a scientist. |
| 54 | -->'''Emma:''' What's next, a cure for the gay gene?\ |
| 55 | '''Scientist:''' [[AnalogyBackfire Homosexuality isn't a threat to the human race]].\ |
| 56 | '''Emma:''' [[DeadpanSnarker We are clearly watching different televangelists]]. |
| 57 | [[/folder]] |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 60 | * Cassandra spends about half of ''[[Fanfic/AngelOfTheBat Angel of the Bat: Times of Heresy]]'' trying to do this to herself. After a rough breakup with her girlfriend stacked on top of her other recent struggles, Cassandra tries to retreat into her Catholic faith to cleanse herself of her leftover feelings. [[spoiler: It doesn't work, and the whole story is outright critical of the idea.]] |
| 61 | * The ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' CrackFic ''Fanfic/BecomingFemale'' features a subplot in which Hagrid comes out as gay, something which had apparently been [[TransparentCloset "obvious for a long time"]]. Sometime later, Cornelius Fudge turns out to be "homophobic", causing him to send Hagrid and Dumbledore to a "degayification camp". The protagonists rush to the "degayification camp" to rescue them since Hagrid and Dumbledore would [[InsaneTrollLogic "lose all their powers if they become straight"]]. |
| 62 | * In the later chapters of ''Bringing Me to Life'' there's Gabriel Jameson who tries to 'cure' his teenage son, Max, of being gay by abusing him. This started in Kindergarten - before Max'd even come out, before he'd even realized it, because [[StupidEvil his dad still goes by the 'rule' that a boy that starts baking, even if your Grandmom helps, makes you 'turn' gay]]. Thankfully, it doesn't work at all. |
| 63 | * Mercilessly parodied in one ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfiction, in which it turns out that half the girls of Hogwarts have tried it on [[AmbiguouslyGay Colin Creevey]] whenever they found him sad by having sex with him, completely ignoring his protests that he's actually hetero (and in one case had actually just been dumped by his ''girlfriend'' via letter). Turns out the only reason he takes so many pictures of Harry (for whom he admits he has quite the hero worship) is that the girls are willing to pay a lot for them... |
| 64 | * ''Fanfic/FoxRain'': One villain is a homophobe who wants to "cure" Lila of her supposed homosexuality. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Papillon recalls the akuma and leaves the guy as is]]. |
| 65 | * [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12534588/1/The-Loud-House-If-I-Were-a-Christian ''If I Were a Christian'']] is a ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfic that deals with this happening to the canonically-bisexual Luna, [[RonTheDeathEater portraying her girlfriend Sam as a vicious chick that hooks Luna on cocaine.]] |
| 66 | * ''FanFic/ResonanceDays'' inverts this; as a consequence of girls in [[DeadToBeginWith the afterlife]] being made into hormone-less EnergyBeings, [[YourMindMakesItReal they can switch orientations if they want to]], and since they are surrounded by other girls, they very often ''become'' gay. |
| 67 | * When Weiss comes out to her father Jacques in ''Fanfic/RWBYScars'', he dismisses it as a teenage phase and says that [[ArrangedMarriage marrying]] his much older friend can "fix" Weiss. Weiss and her mother Willow are horrified at the idea. |
| 68 | * In the [[TrollFic infamous]] ''Fanfic/SupperSmashBrosMishonhFromGod'', creating a vaccine for homosexuality and using it to force a HeelFaceTurn on the gay smashers is one of the protagonist's major goals. It's also inverted; there's a government vaccine that was responsible for turning Samus and Captain Falcon gay in the first place. |
| 69 | * Lady Vivian in Merlin CrackFic ''FanFic/AVeryHairySituation'' She's an anomaly in a story that uses Cure Your Straights as a plot device. |
| 70 | * In ''Film/TheHobbit'' fanfic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/5026975/chapters/11554027 Why Male Dwarves can get Pregnant]]'', this trope is played with. Bilbo has a crush on Thorin, believing both of them to be male, and keeps silent about it, fearing homophobia. Then it is revealed that dwarves have three genders, and Thorin is bigender. Bilbo then begins a quest for his own gender identity and finds out he is also bigender, which is fortunate, as Thorin also had a crush on Bilbo, but according to dwarven law, bigender people can only be in relationships with other bigender people; which was why Thorin never dared to say anything. |
| 71 | [[/folder]] |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 74 | * The main villain of ''[[WebAnimation/QueerDuck Queer Duck: The Movie]]'' is Reverend Vandergelding, a religious fundamentalist ([[ReusedCharacterDesign identical to the nameless one who appeared in the original web series episode "Oh Christ!"]]) who makes it his goal to make Queer Duck straight. While the Reverend does succeed in making Queer Duck attracted to women just before Queer Duck's wedding to Lola Buzzard, it wears off after Lola's manservant Peccary and Barbara Streisand help Queer Duck become gay again. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:Film -- Live Action]] |
| 78 | * ''Film/ABCsOfDeath2'': In "J [[spoiler:is Jesus]]", a wealthy businessman hires a team to kidnap his gay son and exorcise the gayness out of him. |
| 79 | * ''Film/BoyErased'' is an adaptation of a memoir of a man subjected to conversion therapy. Needless to say, it was a terrible time. |
| 80 | * ''Film/Bruno2009''. The title character (played by Sasha Baron Cohen) attempts to go straight with the help of a man who specialized in "curing" gay men. He ends up going hunting and to an orgy. |
| 81 | * ''Film/ButImACheerleader'', a film about a summer camp attempting to cure teenagers of their homosexuality. It fails miserably. |
| 82 | * ''Film/ByHookOrByCrook'': Val's parents sent him to a mental institution when he was 13, for "wearing boy's clothes". It didn't work, of course; he continues to present as male and has a romantic relationship with a woman, Billie. |
| 83 | * ''Film/CarmenYLola'': After he learns Lola is involved with Carmen, her father drags her to church and prays with the pastor to have God "heal" her of the "unnatural sickness" she has. It doesn't work, of course. |
| 84 | * In ''Film/{{Carol}}'', the titular character mentions going to see a therapist to try to fix her "moral problem." She does it mostly to attempt to get to see her child and presumably quits after admitting that her affair with Therese was something she wanted. |
| 85 | * ''Film/ChasingAmy''. Appears to be about this, with Holden "curing" Alyssa of her lesbianism — however, [[spoiler:it turns out that she was bisexual all along. She ''identified'' as a lesbian for a long time, but she had been involved with a number of men in the past. When Holden finds out that he ''didn't'' magically make her switch teams, he doesn't take it well]]. |
| 86 | %%* In ''Film/TheDanishGirl'', even the most compassionate doctor trans woman Lili meets thinks she's mentally unstable and needs some sort of painful therapy. The worst diagnoses her as schizophrenic and is ready to have her hauled off to an asylum before she escapes.%% |
| 87 | * The film ''Film/ADifferentStory'' is of a gay man and a lesbian moving in together and both suddenly stop being gay and fall in love with each other. |
| 88 | * ''Film/{{Dope}}'': Diggy's family tries to cure her lesbianism through prayer every Sunday at their church. As the narrator relates this we see her in the middle of a prayer circle (the only time she's wearing feminine clothing) looking bored then checking out an attractive woman nearby. She jokes that maybe it worked due to being turned on by seeing Music/JustinBieber. |
| 89 | * One storyline in ''Film/FarFromHeaven'' involves Frank trying to "cure" his homosexuality after his wife Cathy catches him making out with a male coworker. Frank attends aversion therapy with a psychiatrist but quits after a few sessions and has another fling (that eventually becomes a serious relationship) while vacationing in Florida. |
| 90 | * Creator/JohnWaters' ''Film/FemaleTrouble''. Inverted, in which Aunt Ida begs her son Gator to "turn nelly", even trying to set him up on dates with flamboyantly gay men. |
| 91 | -->'''Aunt Ida''': The world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life! |
| 92 | * ''Film/{{Gigli}}''. Creator/BenAffleck is a cure for lesbianism, it seems. |
| 93 | * ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''. Film/JamesBond rapes the lesbianism right out of Pussy Galore. This is taken straight from the novel, where it's somehow even less subtle. |
| 94 | * Horrifically subverted (and sadly TruthInTelevision) in ''Film/TheImitationGame'' when Alan Turing is put on hormone therapy, "chemical castration", after being arrested for indecency. |
| 95 | * The main character of ''Film/InAndOut'' tries to do this with a Self-Help tape. He proceeds to fail abysmally when he can't resist the urge to dance to "I Will Survive" despite [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat the tape screaming at him to stop]]. |
| 96 | * Aaron is sent to a camp to cure his gayness in ''Film/LatterDays''. Not only does it predictably not work, but it's also there that he [[spoiler:hears the song Christian's friend has made using his diary and realizes Christian loves him]], giving him the strength to run away from there. |
| 97 | * In ''Film/{{Maurice}}'', the title character goes to an American hypnotist to cure his homosexuality. Somewhat subverted since the hypnotist is the most reaffirming character in the film, giving up and suggesting Maurice emigrate to a country more accepting of homosexuality. |
| 98 | * Mentioned in passing in ''Film/MillersCrossing'', where a gay character says [[SiblingIncest his sister came on to him to try to cure him]]. Given how trustworthy the speaker is, it's hard to say if he's telling the truth. |
| 99 | * ''Film/TheMiseducationOfCameronPost'' is about the titular high school girl who gets sent to a camp called "God's Promise" after being caught by her guardians on prom night with the prom queen. It ends with her and several friends escaping the camp. |
| 100 | * ''Film/{{Monster|2023}}'' is about two gay kids who are still in elementary school. Hoshikawa's father says that his son has a pig's brain, and claims that this is a mental disease that he has to get rid of. |
| 101 | * ''Film/PillowTalk''. Brad feigns being gay to attract Jan, to try to get her to "cure" him. The ironic subtext was that Brad was played by Creator/RockHudson, who even played this scene at parties for friends who knew he was gay. |
| 102 | * In ''Film/PrayersForBobby'', Mary's efforts to cure her son Bobby's homosexuality drive him to suicide. Mary [[HeelRealization realizes]] that God didn't cure Bobby because there was nothing wrong with him in the first place and she becomes a gay rights activist. |
| 103 | * A disturbing example in the film ''Film/SavageGrace'', [[spoiler: where a mother attempts to cure her son of his homosexuality by sleeping with him.]] |
| 104 | * ''Film/{{Saved}}''. After a devout Christian teenager learns that her boyfriend is gay, she sleeps with him in order to cure him. It doesn't work. Then the boy's parents find out and send him to an institution with the intention of curing him, where he stays for most of the movie. And then turns up at prom with a boyfriend who was his roommate at the institution. |
| 105 | * ''Film/SaveMe'' centers around a drug-addicted gay man who enters an ex-gay program at the request of his Catholic family shortly after an accidental overdose. Oddly, the ex-gay program itself is shown in a sympathetic light, with the two camp runners being portrayed as well-intentioned but woefully misguided and ultimately damaging. [[spoiler:They started the camp after their gay son committed suicide.]] |
| 106 | * The TV movie ''Film/SeniorTrip'' features sensitive artist Jon. On a class trip to New York City, he meets an older male artist who is presented in a predatory manner, while Jon, traumatized by his desire for men, cowers in his presence. After managing to leave, Jon comes across a {{hooker with a heart of gold}} and tells her he had to see if he would be able to have sex with a woman. After they do, he feels more at peace. |
| 107 | * ''Film/TheyThem2022'': The center of the plot, as the cast are residents and staff of a conversion therapy camp for LGBT+ youth. "Conversion" methods range from trying to have them act out in gender-normative ways to brutal aversion therapy via ElectricTorture. |
| 108 | * ''Film/TrappedTheAlexCooperStory'': The whole plot. When Alex comes out to her parents (who are fundamentalist [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} Mormons]]), the first thing they do is send her to a gay conversion therapy prison. |
| 109 | * In the 1981 Marathi film ''Film/{{Umbartha}}'', Smita Patil gets a job as director of a reformatory for wayward women. When some of the inmates discover that two women are in a lesbian relationship, violent homophobia erupts and they want to lynch the lesbians. Smita's character, intended to represent the voice of reason, lectures them that gays are not evil and depraved, they are merely mentally ill, and they need treatment to cure them instead of punishing them. In India in 1981, this is what passed for a modern enlightened view: presenting "cure your gays" as the compassionate alternative to lynching. Even that was too progressive for the lesbians in the movie themselves, who immediately [[GayngstInducedSuicide committed suicide]]. |
| 110 | * ''Film/VelvetGoldmine''. Teenage Curt Wilde is given shock treatments by his parents to cure him (based on the RealLife experiences of Music/LouReed). |
| 111 | -->''The doctors said the treatment would "fry the fairy clean out of him". But all it did was make him bonkers — every time he heard an electric guitar...'' |
| 112 | [[/folder]] |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 115 | * ''Literature/AlfiesHome'' is about a boy who is told that he's gay because his CreepyUncle molested him and he didn't get enough attention from his father. He is apparently "cured" of being gay through some therapy and his uncle apologizing to him. |
| 116 | * ''Literature/AnnieOnMyMind'': Mrs. Poindexter, Ms. Baxter, and Sally urge Liza to go see a psychiatrist and be "cured". Liza refuses this idea without hesitation. |
| 117 | * In ''Literature/Blackbird1986'', Randy tries to do this to himself, and later his mother and Pastor Crandall try to drive the homosexuality out of him, all without success. |
| 118 | * ''Literature/TheBlackMagicianTrilogy'': |
| 119 | ** A character has struggled against rumors about being gay [[DeliberateValuesDissonance which have ruined his reputation]] (in his home country at least - others are more open). Eventually, when he is completely out of mana it turns out that he ''was'' gay, but he blocked out the memories and has been reflexively using Healing magic to block ''any'' sexual impulse for years. The gay man he had been traveling with had already figured it out but didn't want to say anything, and they end up becoming a couple. |
| 120 | ** It's a bit better than the regular cases, since the man IS gay, but had tried to 'cure' himself, due to the great social stigma attached to it in his home country. It sort of works, since he forces himself -- with magic -- not to think sexual thoughts because he doesn't want to admit that he is gay. So it is sort of an inversion of the trope. Since it is a curing that fails. Sort of. |
| 121 | ** This is essentially what a particularly ArmoredClosetGay goes through, aided by magic. If a repressed homosexual had access to magic, this is what they would do. A 'cure' for homosexuality would not result in a functionally UsefulNotes/{{asexual|ity}} person, but a heterosexual person, because the kind of people who think that homosexuality is a disease that needs to be cured are generally not going to accept asexual identities, either. The situation described above is not a cure, but merely good ol' repression, magically enhanced. |
| 122 | * The titular camp in ''Literature/CampDamascus'' specializes in this, claiming to have a “100% success rate” which turns out to involve [[spoiler: tethering an actual demon to each of their campers who will attack either them or whoever they’re experiencing attraction to, as well as wiping any memories of past same-sex relationships.]] |
| 123 | * In ''Literature/TheChildGarden'' by Geoff Ryman, there is an actual CURE for being gay, and everyone gets it along with the cures for everything else. It's implied to be highly imperfect, though - while receiving it switches [[spoiler:Rolfa's]] attraction towards women for one towards men, the men she tries to proposition feel absolutely zero sexual chemistry with her beforehand and so are surprised and unnerved by her advances. |
| 124 | * In the short story ''The Crooked Man'' by Charles Beaumont, Jesse and Mina are a straight couple meeting in secret in a future where gay couples are the norm and politicians rail against heterosexuals. At the conclusion, they are caught by the vice squad and get taken away to be cured (Jesse forcibly; Mina has accepted it and decides it would be better than going underground). |
| 125 | * In the {{dystopia}} in the Literature/DeliriumSeries, love is considered a disease. All people are required to have surgery to cure them of love at the age of 18. If two "uncureds" of the opposite sex fall in love and get involved with each other, they're merely considered to have "amor deliria nervosa" and it's bad because it's considered an unnatural version of the usual husband-wife relationships. If the two "uncureds" are of the same sex, though, their behavior is labeled as "Unnaturalism." After the surgery, everyone is forced into heterosexual {{bureaucratically arranged marriage}}s. |
| 126 | * In Dante's 1320 epic ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', the seventh terrace of Purgatory features homosexual men singing in harmony with the heterosexual lustful as they all purify their sexualities corrupted by the Fall. |
| 127 | * Inverted in ''Literature/TheForeverWar''; in the 24th century, homosexuality is mandatory (as PopulationControl) and heterosexuality is considered a mental disorder that is easily cured. Though it doesn't work on [[FishOutOfTemporalWater oldtimers]] like Mandella. Though at the end [[spoiler:in the 31st century, sexuality becomes a moot point on earth as it's now a HiveMind of clones. But some of Mandella's surviving troops decide to become straight and join colonies of old-fashioned humans.]] |
| 128 | * ''Literature/{{Genome}}'' by Creator/SergeyLukyanenko describes a world where most people are genetically specialized for some profession (be it janitor, pilot, geisha, executioner...). Many are also programmed to love their professions. Pak, a non-specialized secondary character[[note]]a caviller, but otherwise a nice guy and a great specialist in his field to boot[[/note]] drinks an experimental drug that suppresses genetic predisposition to anything. Several hours later we see him experimenting with a woman for the first time in his life. The inventor of the drug predicts that if this becomes a habit, Pak would stay bi when the drug wears off in a few weeks. Note that the effect is completely unintentional as in this world any sexuality is perfectly OK. |
| 129 | * As with the film based on it, in ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'', James Bond cures Pussy Galore of being a lesbian by raping her after she confesses to him that she was raped by an older male relative as a teenager. Yeah. |
| 130 | * This trope is briefly invoked in ''Literature/GoodInBed'', by Cannie and her siblings following their mother coming out of the closet. However, it's shown to be less specific about disgust with lesbianism and more of a desire to regain their old life, without her rather surly life partner involved. |
| 131 | * ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'' has one of the human characters had once been a homosexual, but after so many years of torture from [[AIIsACrapshoot AM]], he now has sex with Ellen, the only female of the group. Also became a monstrous gorilla thing. This is a case where this clearly isn't supposed to be seen as a good thing and may, in fact, count as some form of dark social satire since it was published in 1967 when attempts at 'curing' gay men of their homosexuality were pretty much the norm. It might also be a subversion since Benny's attraction to men was only "cured" by ''physically rearranging his body and breaking his mind'', and the act of giving him his freakish, [[BiggerIsBetterInBed overly endowed]] body and changing his sexuality is considered a torture in and of itself. Given that this is written by Creator/HarlanEllison®, we can probably go with subversion. |
| 132 | * ''Literature/IndecentExposure'': Dr von Blimenstein is convinced that a combination of electric shocks, strong emetics, and aversion therapy can cure ''anything''. She gets a chance to test this and applies it first to policemen sexually attracted to black women[[note]] This is South Africa in UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra[[/note]], and then on gays. |
| 133 | * In ''Literature/JulianComstock'', Adam (who is straight) manages to take advantage of this (ironically he consistently misses the indications that his friend Julian ''is'' gay). |
| 134 | -->On more than one occasion his [Julian's] female acquaintances--sophisticated girls of my own age, or older--made the assumption that I was Julian's intimate companion, in a physical sense. Whereupon they undertook to cure me of my deviant habits, in the most direct fashion. I was happy to cooperate with these "cures," and they were successful every time. |
| 135 | * ''Literature/TheLoveAndLiesOfRukhsanaAli'': Rukhsana's parents become convinced she's [[DemonicPossession possessed by a djinn]] that made her attracted to girls and defy them. They hire an exorcist called a djinn-catcher, but of course the odd "exorcism" fails. |
| 136 | * In ''Literature/LoveDrugged'' by James Klise, the main character attempts to cure his own homosexuality by taking an experimental pill that claims to be able to remove homosexual urges, even though it's currently untested and the side effects include nausea, rage problems, and blinding headaches. [[spoiler:It doesn't quite work as he hoped, however - the pills only help with diminishing his homosexual urges, but don't create heterosexual urges in their place, leaving him basically desexualized, angry, and in pain.]] |
| 137 | * In E.M. Forster's ''Literature/{{Maurice}}'', the title character goes to a hypnotist to try to change. Doesn't work. |
| 138 | * In Adam Silvera's ''More Happy Than Not'', Aaron falls in love with his new friend Thomas despite having a girlfriend and decides to undergo an ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind''-like memory erasure procedure to get rid of his feelings for Thomas. [[spoiler:Before he does, however, a traumatic event causes him to remember that he already underwent this procedure in the past to forget another boy after their relationship caused him to be on the receiving end of brutal homophobia -- a procedure that obviously didn't actually cure him of his homosexuality. He ultimately decides to not undergo the procedure a second time.]] |
| 139 | * In ''Literature/{{Oracle}}'' by Creator/GregEgan, an [[CaptainErsatz alternate universe]] Alan Turing is locked in a punishingly cramped cage by the secret service in an attempt to cure him of his homosexuality. The NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed version of Turing notices the {{Anvilicious}}ness of the situation: |
| 140 | -->Quint was silent for a moment, then he replied with a tone of thoughtful sympathy. "It's unnatural, isn't it? Living like this: bent over, twisted, day after day. Living in an unnatural way is always going to harm you. I'm glad you can finally see that." |
| 141 | -->Robert was tired; it took several seconds for the meaning to sink in. ''It was that crude, that obvious?'' They'd locked him in this cage, for all this time ... as a kind of ham-fisted ''metaphor'' for his crimes? |
| 142 | ** His short story "Cocoon" also has the eponymous treatment for pregnant women that inadvertently prevent gay-making hormones from reaching the baby. |
| 143 | * Defied in ''Literature/PatienceAndSarah''. Patience's brother Edward asks if she's tried to pray for her feelings for Sarah to go away, but Patience notes she doesn't want to be "freed" of her feelings. She's instead prayed to be "fulfilled in it". |
| 144 | * Pops up in ''Literature/PrettyLittleLiars''. In the third book, Emily is outed by "A" and as a result, her parents make her take part in a program called "Little Miss Treetops" in order to "cure" her (Emily only reluctantly agrees to take part after her mother threatens to send her off to her horribly stuck up and stuffy Amish relatives if she doesn't). Suffice to say this fails miserably when Emily and her peer mentor Becka decide to go skating and they run into Becka's ex, Wendy. Emily excuses herself to go to the washroom, only to find Becka and Wendy making out when she returns, prompting Becka to admit that there really isn't a cure for being gay. This convinces Emily not to take part in the program. THEN Emily's parents, upset with her for not trying to "cure" herself, try again by sending her to the aforementioned Amish relatives but this also fails when Emily runs away. Fortunately, Emily's parents and siblings do become more accepting of her sexuality in later books. |
| 145 | * In Pat Barker's ''The Eye In The Door'' from ''Literature/TheRegenerationTrilogy'', some members of the British parliament see gays as a threat to society, and there's a lot of talk about curing homosexuality through therapy--it's a constant threat in the background, although it's never tried on any of the main characters. |
| 146 | * In the world of ''{{Literature/Replica|JennaBlack}}'', homosexuality is a tricky situation. It is considered acceptable for the two lower classes (Employees and the Basement) to express themselves in such a way. The powerful Executive class forbids it and any Executive who identifies as such are sent to a special place for reprogramming. |
| 147 | * {{Inverted}} in Creator/ChrisMoriarty's novel ''Spin Control''. The Syndicates try to genetically program their {{Artificial Human}}s to all be gay, but the novel posits something called the "Six Percent Rule": i.e. no matter how hard you work to make people have one sexuality, at least six percent are always going to break away from it. This causes problems when aliens interfere with a Syndicate colony's FantasticContraception, causing a bisexual male's affair with a female to result in a SurprisePregnancy. |
| 148 | * Jess' parents in ''Literature/StoneButchBlues'' caught her wearing her father's clothes when she was a young teen and admitted her to a psych ward until she lied her way out of there. This narrative is also part of what makes the rapist policemen so insidious. |
| 149 | * ''Literature/SurrenderYourSons'' is a thriller young adult novel that is primarily set in a conversation camp tucked away in Costa Rica; the main character is taken by force there by the camp's staff in a setup arranged by his mother. |
| 150 | * ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' features a war between Azania, a technologically advanced LadyLand of lesbian Amazons, and the Northern Confederation, a reactionary and borderline theocratic far-right Christian state. Both sides naturally hate each other with a passion and fight a virtual war of extermination, but it is the Confederation that is eventually victorious. They institute a program of re-education for the surviving Azanians, which teaches them to be "real women" (read: appreciative and submissive Christian wives), with the graduates later married off to Confederation soldiers. Hard cases who buck the treatment do exist; these are written off and [[MadeASlave sold as slaves]] instead. |
| 151 | * In ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', a WorldOfPun, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the ''strait''jacket has this effect. |
| 152 | [[/folder]] |
| 153 | |
| 154 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 155 | * ''Series/ThirtyRock'': |
| 156 | ** Devon Banks claimed he was "cured" of his homosexuality. It didn't work, as Devon remains infatuated with men, especially Kenneth. |
| 157 | ** Inverted in "Cooter", when a "gay bomb" weapon malfunctions, causing Jack and Pentagon brass to start hitting on each other. In a later episode, it is implied things went further as Jack fretted about meeting a general he'd had sex with under the influence.[[note]]''Series/ThirtyRock''[='=]s writers were aware that this was an experimental weapon the military was actually working on, but it wasn't necessarily a gay bomb, more a pheromone gas that made people have sex with [[ExtremeOmnisexual anyone nearby]] as a way of distracting the other side. They never actually got it past the planning stages, for the obvious reason of it being a ridiculously stupid idea.[[/note]] |
| 158 | --->'''Cooter''': I feel weird.\ |
| 159 | '''Jack''': ''[hungrily]'' Let's do this. |
| 160 | * ''Series/FortyFourHundred'': |
| 161 | ** It's implied that Noah's fear of doctors stems from his parents trying to stop him from transitioning. |
| 162 | ** Isaiah's family is involved in the "reparative therapy" business... which has been denounced by his son. |
| 163 | * ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'''s third-season finale, "And The First Degree", mentioned this little [[NoodleIncident anecdote]], when Max is telling Caroline she never graduated high school. |
| 164 | -->'''Max:''' The only thing I graduated from is a scarred straight program, which is why I'm not gay anymore. |
| 165 | * ''Series/AllMyChildren'': |
| 166 | ** Erica Kane attempted some version of this when her daughter Bianca came out of the closet, believing her to be more confused than anything else. The therapist ended up helping both of them come to terms with it and repair their relationship. |
| 167 | ** A minor character's parents attempted to do this with their son, sending him to therapy. It only served to make the poor boy even more confused and upset, culminating in his parents disowning him when he refused to deny his sexuality. Fortunately, one of the town's wealthiest citizens took him under his wing. |
| 168 | * In ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum'', set in 1964 in an insane asylum, we have Lana, a reporter who wants to investigate the asylum. When the head finds out, she has Lana imprisoned (with her partner's reluctant consent) because Lana is gay. One sympathetic psychiatrist has a plan to help her escape by proving she is "cured" of her gayness, and because it's 1964, he first tries aversion therapy. [[spoiler:It didn't work.]] |
| 169 | * ''Series/BigSky'': Jerrie's parents sent her to a therapist in hopes this would stop her being transgender. After it didn't, they disowned her. |
| 170 | * One episode of ''Series/BostonLegal'' featured one of the recurring judges suing a Christian institution after their program failed to cure his homosexuality. Or, as he put it, the urges he kept having that in no way indicated he was actually ''gay''. |
| 171 | * ''Series/TheBoys2019'': Ezekiel's main selling point is that he truly believes that through the power of prayer, a person can become straight. At Believe Expo, Starlight even sees a poster of Homelander that says "Feeling Confused? Fly Straight", and the festival just serves as a way to market this to the world at large by sponsoring superheroes. [[spoiler: He [[{{Hypocrite}} personally knows the opposite, and lives as a closeted gay man.]]]] |
| 172 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 173 | ** Joked about when Willow points out to her girlfriend Tara that some guys were checking her out. |
| 174 | --->'''Tara''': Oh my God! I'm cured! I want the boys! |
| 175 | ** Played more straight (if hidden behind a [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster thin veil of metaphor about witchcraft]]) in an earlier episode where Tara's father vows to stop her living "God knows what kind of lifestyle." |
| 176 | * The short-lived CBS drama ''Series/CenturyCity'' (the law firm ''OF THE FUTURE!'') had its pilot shuffled around and eventually buried because it dealt with this trope head-on. A prenatal procedure that reduces the chances of a child being born gay has become commonplace, and the law firm is hired by a couple of parents who are suing their doctor because their child has been born gay. At first, they think it was a medical error... then they find out the doctor's been deliberately sabotaging the procedure because he hates the idea of homosexuality and the gay community just vanishing silently. The episode ends with a GayAesop, but it's understandable why the topic was a bit hinky, |
| 177 | * ''Series/TheColbertReport'': Turning Stephen Colbert gay is part of the national Secret Gay Agenda. Their most [[FelonyMisdemeanor insidious weapon in this fight]]? [[NoodleImplements Baby Carrots]]. |
| 178 | * In ''Series/{{Community}}'' episodes [[Recap/CommunityS1E17PhysicalEducation Physical Education]] Shirley suggests this if Abed's admirer is male. |
| 179 | * ''Series/{{Coupling}}'' poked fun at this in an episode that had a lot of fun with Steve's fascination with lesbian porn. In one of the typical misunderstandings, Patrick mistakes Jane's therapist Jill for a lesbian while she thinks that Patrick is gay. Both are unaware of it, both are surprised at how open the other is to being turned by the right man/woman, and both end up in bed together. The final scene of the episode is Patrick sporting a happy "wow, I scored a lesbian" smile. |
| 180 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': |
| 181 | ** One episode features someone who went to a conversion camp and became so traumatized by it that he turned into a serial killer who targets gays. Given that the conversion methods involved calling them abominations and having a prostitute "rape them straight", it shouldn't be surprising that it turned out so badly. This episode caused an uproar of many proponents of conversion therapy. |
| 182 | ** In another episode, a father tried beating the gay out of his son for most of his life, driving him insane and making him kill other gay men so he could steal their identities and live their carefree lives. |
| 183 | * ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'': |
| 184 | ** In one episode, Riley contacts an organization devoted to this sort of therapy, after entering "how to not be gay" in a search engine. He is frustrated when told the process will take years and involve considerable expense. He eventually comes to terms with his homosexuality. |
| 185 | ** [[OlderThanTheyThink Fans did it first]]. A lot of fanfic involved "curing" Marco. It didn't work out well, most of the time. Some of the time it did. |
| 186 | ** The NewTransferStudent Becky tries to do this. First, she gives Dave a pamphlet for curing gayness, even though Dave is just playing a gay guy in a play and is actually straight. She then has a crush on Adam, who is transgender, and when she finds out she tries to get him to change as well. The tables turn though while Becky is dating Adam and she tells her parents that he's trans, which ends up putting HER into "reparative therapy". |
| 187 | * Thomas from ''Series/DowntonAbbey'' tries to cure his own gayness with some reparative therapy he learns about from a newspaper ad and afterward continues to administer treatments himself. All it gets him is a trip to the hospital. |
| 188 | * Played terribly straight in ''Series/EastEnders'', when Syed, in a desperate bid to get his parents to love and respect him again, goes to a therapist who claims he can make someone straight. |
| 189 | * ''Series/{{Ellen}}'': Subverted in one episode, in which everyone wishes they could be gay because it's so chic in Hollywood, to the point in which [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYWt2f9jsBE Sean Penn comes out]] to increase his popularity. Being a FakeBrit is the ''real'' atrocity. |
| 190 | * ''Series/FellowTravelers'': After Leonard Smith is arrested for commission of obscene and indecent acts (i.e. GayCruising), Hawkins Fuller admits him to a facility that claims to cure homosexuality with a combination of aversion and shock therapy. |
| 191 | * ''Series/{{Glee}}'': |
| 192 | ** One episode features [[CampGay Kurt]] trying to be more masculine, and thus straight, because he thinks his father will love him more. His (very loving and accepting) father sees right through this but humors his son anyway. By the end of the episode, of course, he accepts himself. |
| 193 | --->'''Kurt''': Turned out we have a lot more in common. The flannel. The Mellencamp. The ladies. |
| 194 | ** Later mentioned in a far more serious context when [[spoiler:Karofsky is outed at his new school and tries to hang himself; at the hospital, he tells Kurt that his mother thinks he has a disease and that maybe he can be cured.]] |
| 195 | * [[TheFundamentalist Dale]] of ''Series/{{Greek}}'' tries to "cure" [[StraightGay Calvin]] by giving him pictures of male models and then forcing him to smell rotten food (to create a connection between the two). Dale mostly drops it when Calvin points out that the same passage of the Bible that condemns homosexuality also condemns wearing clothing from different cloths (and is that a multifiber sweater?). |
| 196 | * In ''Series/GreysAnatomy'', after Callie comes out to her father (a die-hard Catholic), he cuts her off. After a few episodes, he comes back seemingly to reconcile... then Callie notices a priest he brought with him. She immediately starts angrily telling him that he can't "pray away the gay". Interestingly, the priest barely gets to say anything, as her father is the one trying to Bible-stump his way out of this "problem" with the priest trying to act as a mediator and the voice of reason. Eventually, Callie's father accepts her but only after Arizona (Callie's girlfriend) has a heart-to-heart talk with him. In a later episode, we find out that Callie's mother still has a long way to go before she can accept this (despite Callie pointing out that her own assistant is gay). |
| 197 | * PlayedForLaughs in the [[Series/TopGear Clarkson Island]] sketch in ''Series/HarryAndPaul''. The Clarkson farmer notes that, every so often, they do get a gay Clarkson. To fix this, the farmer sprays it with "de-gay", thus turning it back into a regular ManlyMan Clarkson. |
| 198 | * ''Series/{{House}}'': |
| 199 | ** The patient in the episode "The Choice" is engaged to a woman and insists that he has been 'cured' of homosexuality. Dr. House, full of disgust as a medical professional, calls his patient's treatment clinic "Dr. Liberace's He-Man Quackery Camp." Their cure turns out to be the cause of his illness. |
| 200 | --->'''Patient''': I am as straight as any one of you! \ |
| 201 | '''Thirteen''': Oh, I don't doubt that even for a minute. |
| 202 | ** They went in the opposite direction when an UsefulNotes/{{asexual|ity}} patient shows up in one episode. In that one, House bets Wilson that he can prove that her asexuality is caused by a medical condition. [[spoiler:He "cures" her husband and gets her to admit she lied about being ace]]. This in spite of the fact that House's treatment would at most restore the man's libido; it would not establish sexual attraction, though House claims otherwise. |
| 203 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. One episode involved a doctor who claims to be able to cure homosexuality and is suspected of murdering his son's (male) lover. He claims he had no idea his son was gay and thought he was being raped [[spoiler:but he knew all along as his son's [[TheBeard beard]]'s mother told him.]] The victim was a former spokesman for an organization that supposedly cures homosexuality; when questioned, members of the group -- a gay man and a lesbian who are married, having been tragically brainwashed and warped by the group -- acknowledge that there's no such thing as a cure for their orientation and that choosing to suppress their sexual desires is as much a "lifestyle choice" as being part of gay culture-- and just as much of a struggle. |
| 204 | * ''Series/{{Lewis}}'': "[[Recap/LewisS2E3 Life Born of Fire]]" opens with [[GayngstInducedSuicide the suicide of a gay man]] who (as it emerges during the course of the episode) was a member of a Christian group that attempted to 'cure' his homosexuality. |
| 205 | * ''Series/TheLWord'': |
| 206 | ** When Jenny and Shane are interviewing potential roommates in Season 2, one of them makes this offer, and she is shown the door. |
| 207 | ** In Season 3 an "ex-gay" ministry is introduced by flashbacks from the 1980s, showing this drives people into mass hypocrisy as the supposed "former" gays or lesbians just have sex on the side. |
| 208 | * ''Series/MadAboutYou'': Paul's mother's reaction to his sister coming out of the closet was to attempt to jump out of a window, then outright state "You are NOT a lesbian!" and declare her intent to send her to see a doctor. When his sister angrily declared, "I don't need to see a therapist!", her mother further cemented her irrational reaction by informing her that the doctor in question was an ENT specialist. |
| 209 | * On ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Francis becomes an assistant to beauty pageant contestants. He finds out that they think he's gay but goes along with it as it means they're comfortable flaunting their bodies around him and letting him help them change costumes. Eventually, he tries to get together with one by saying he's wondering if he can be cured, but this lands him in a seminar where a stereotypical Southern preacher lambasts the audience to "pray away the gay." It's also implied that another man at the seminar only comes there to pick up guys. |
| 210 | * A ''Series/MrShow'' sketch: The "Good News" program on the What-to-Think Network tries to do this. A TransparentCloset man keeps coming back over the years claiming that he's been cured, only to "relapse" and get caught at gay orgies again and again. In the end, the host declares that he has plans to "relapse" again during an upcoming holiday (presumably for another orgy) and then re-convert. |
| 211 | * The main plot for the controversial short-lived television TLC documentary ''My Husband's Not Gay'' in which four wives of four random Mormon men are in denial of their husbands' sexualities and try to "cure" them through any means possible. |
| 212 | * ''Series/OurAmericaWithLisaLing'' featured a trio of episodes dealing with conversion therapy. "Pray the Gay Away?" featured interviews with several people trying to "cure" their homosexuality, the people trying to "cure" them, and teenage attendees at an LGBT-supportive summer camp. "Pray the Gay Away? -- Breaking News" aired 17 months later. It repeated almost all of the same footage from the first episode along with a few minutes of a new interview with "ex=gay" organization Exodus International president Alan Chambers acknowledging that he was not "cured". The third episode, "God and Gays", aired 10 months after the second, one day after Exodus International disbanded. Chambers apologized to several gay and lesbian people for trying to sell the cure for as long as he did. |
| 213 | * An episode of ''Series/Perception2012'' about the murder of a psychiatrist revealed that he was trying to do this with several of his patients. It was eventually learned that the doctor himself was gay and was having an affair with one of the men, who killed him because the doctor wanted to stop his treatment so they could have a legitimate relationship, which would have destroyed his marriage. |
| 214 | * ''Series/QueerAsFolkUS'' tried this on Emmett with a church organization called "See the Light". It culminated in a rather amusing scene in which Emmet and another "cured" lesbian have sex; they both try to envision a perfect, sexy member of the opposite sex, but end up fantasizing about those of their own. Both of them got better. |
| 215 | * In The CW's ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'', after coming to terms with being a lesbian and developing a close bond with Toni Topaz, Cheryl Blossom gets sent against her will to a conversion hospital by her homophobic mother Penelope in a selfish attempt to cure her daughter of her "demons". Luckily, Cheryl is rescued by Toni and Veronica in the nick of time. |
| 216 | * Parodied on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' with the drug ''Homocil'', though this was more to help the ''parents'' deal with it, rather than turning the child back straight. |
| 217 | * ''Series/TheSchoolNurseFiles'': In the finale, some teachers suggest that [[spoiler: Radi and Hye-min]]'s lesbianism should be cured early, upon discovering that they are going out. |
| 218 | * ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': |
| 219 | ** In one episode, Elliot claims to have convinced a man he was straight by sleeping with him. Of course, then he hanged himself. |
| 220 | ** When her brother Barry came out, their parents sent him to hetero-camp. |
| 221 | ** She also loves doing a roleplay scenario with Keith where he plays the high school student and her the LesbianJock - and Keith 'turns' her. |
| 222 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' |
| 223 | ** In "The Beard", Elaine tries to make a gay man "change teams". She succeeds, but only temporarily. |
| 224 | --->'''Elaine''': Being a woman, I only really have access to the, uh... "equipment", what? 30, 45 minutes a week? And that's on a ''good'' week. How can I be expected to have the same expertise as people who ''own'' this equipment, and have access to it 24 hours a day, their entire lives?\ |
| 225 | '''Jerry''': You can't. That's why they lose very few players. |
| 226 | ** In "The Smelly Car", while George is angsting about possibly [[LastHetRomance driving an ex-girlfriend to lesbianism]], Kramer -- the KavorkaMan TropeNamer -- manages to seduce a lifelong lesbian without even trying. The only reason she ended up going back was that he wore Jerry's jacket which had been contaminated with the stench from the eponymous smelly car. |
| 227 | --->'''Elaine''': Wait a minute, wait a minute. Kramer, Kramer. Hold on a second, I don't get this. This woman has ''never'' been with a man her ''entire life''.\ |
| 228 | '''Kramer''': ''[shrug]'' I'm Kramer. |
| 229 | * In ''Series/ShamelessUS'', [[ArmouredClosetGay Mickey Milkovich]] is caught getting it from his boyfriend Ian when his [[HeteronormativeCrusader homophobic]] [[AbusiveParents father]] Terry comes home unexpectedly. Terry beats Mickey into unconsciousness and holds Ian captive at gunpoint while he calls in a prostitute to [[RapeByProxy "fuck the queer"]] out of his son. Faced with himself and Ian being shot if he refuses, Mickey complies. The prostitute later turns out to be pregnant and Mickey is [[TheBabyTrap forced to marry her]] even though he has no desire to and still wants to be with Ian (including having sex with him literally right before he goes out to the altar). |
| 230 | * ''Series/TheShield'': |
| 231 | ** Played horrifically straight in an episode. A young girl is raped repeatedly by her bigoted father, brother, and others in order to cure her of her homosexuality. The trauma is enough that she acknowledges her orientation again. |
| 232 | ** ''Series/TheShield'' also played it completely straight with Julian, a cop who struggled with the conflict between his homosexual desires and his devout Baptist beliefs. He eventually marries a woman and seems happy with her, but it is implied that his homosexuality may only have been repressed, not eliminated. |
| 233 | ** [[WordOfGod Series creator Shawn Ryan has said]] that the [[AbortedArc disappearance and lack of direct reference to]] Julian's homosexuality was due both to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Michael Jace's discomfort with shooting so many gay scenes]] and because in a lot of his research he saw that (unfortunately) quite a few married "ex-gays" in Christian circles that had undergone sexual "reorientation" therapy tend to still claim they're straight for a long time. |
| 234 | * In ''Series/TheSopranos'', when Finn asks what is going to happen with an outed [[{{Gayngster}} Vito]], Chris tries to ease his mind by telling him that they'll make Vito pay for some therapy. Later on, Vito also tries to discuss it with Tony, to no avail. |
| 235 | -->'''Vito''': It was the medication I was on. For my blood pressure. It fucked with my head, but I'm over that now. I could probably get a letter from my doctor\ |
| 236 | '''Tony''': A note from your doctor saying you don't like to suck cock? |
| 237 | * ''Series/SouthOfNowhere'' |
| 238 | ** Upon finding out about her daughter's lesbianism, Spencer's bigoted mother hires a "professional" to cure Spencer of her homosexuality. She and the therapist both get the smackdown from Arthur once he finds out. |
| 239 | ** Spencer isn't exactly a fan either. |
| 240 | --->'''Paula''': I love you, Spencer; you are sick...\ |
| 241 | '''Spencer''': I am sick?!\ |
| 242 | '''Paula''': ... And I want to help you.\ |
| 243 | '''Spencer''': Mom, Glenn was so addicted to painkillers that he ended up in jail, and ''I am the one that needs to get better?!''\ |
| 244 | '''[[OpenMindedParent Arthur]]''': Give me a sec with your mother ''[Spencer storms off]'' Why are you doing this, Paula?\ |
| 245 | '''Paula''': I am trying to help our daughter!\ |
| 246 | '''Arthur''': Well, you are pushing her away. We are going to lose her!\ |
| 247 | '''Paula''': Oh, open your eyes, Arthur: We already have! |
| 248 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had the Sci-Fi version of this in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E17TheOutcast The Outcast]]", which featured the J'naii, a race of beings who pride themselves on being androgynous and view gender identity and gender attraction as taboo. When a J'naii called Soren begins to have feelings for Riker, Soren is forced to undergo "psychotectic therapy." To Riker's horror, it proves successful. |
| 249 | * An episode of ''Series/SugarRush'' has the protagonist going to a church group to "cure" herself - but instead ends up finding herself a date. |
| 250 | * In an episode of ''Series/Teachers2016'', Ms. Bennigan mentions that her friend Josiah was sent to North Dakota after he got caught kissing boys. |
| 251 | * During an episode of ''Series/TopGear'' guest-starring Michael Gambon, Michael said one of his favorite things was to give ignorant reporters interviews full of BlatantLies. He recalls a story where one interviewer asked if he was uncomfortable playing Creator/OscarWilde in a film because of his homosexuality, Gambon responded by saying that he used to be gay, but "had to give it up" because it made his eyes water. The interviewer evidently took this seriously. |
| 252 | * In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', Isobel uses her MindControl to compel a gay cowboy named Frank into her own sex slave and servant. He's shown to having sex with another female servant. |
| 253 | * One episode of ''Series/VeronicaMars'' involved a high school boy whose parents sent him to a camp that was supposed to "de-gay" him. |
| 254 | * Inverted in ''Series/TheWarAtHome'', where Dylan, Hillary's ex-boyfriend, turns gay as he began to date Kenny. Dave then commented on her as [[LastHetRomance "the gay maker"]]. |
| 255 | * ''Series/WillAndGrace''. Subverted in one episode that guest-stars Creator/NeilPatrickHarris (who was still officially in the closet at the time) as the leader of an ex-gay club whom Jack gets a crush on [[spoiler:and ends up showering with, after it is discovered that EVERYONE in the club was actually using it as a dating service.]] |
| 256 | [[/folder]] |
| 257 | |
| 258 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 259 | * In the music video ''Be Mine'' by Ofenbach, two gay boys (a PrettyBoy couple) get kidnapped by ''a sexy crazy girl''. They are tied up and gagged, she's trying to seduce and torture both of them. It did eventually work, they end up having a threesome. |
| 260 | * Inverted in Music/TimMinchin's ''Five Poofs And Two Pianos'' in which he expresses the desire to get someone to do the same thing but in reverse because gays are cooler. |
| 261 | * Music/LouReed's ''Kill Your Sons'' from "Sally Can't Dance" was based on his electroshock therapy in an attempt to cure his bisexuality. |
| 262 | * Reggae musician Capleton regularly sings about the need to 'purify' gays. To add insult to injury, he uses [[KillItWithFire fire]] as a symbol for purification (borrowed from his Rastafari faith), causing many people to [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant misinterpret]] what he's saying as BuryYourGays. |
| 263 | * "Bambi" by Music/{{Prince}} from his album ''Music/{{Prince|Album}}'', in which the protagonist tries to convince his former female partner, who left him for a woman, to come back to him: |
| 264 | -->''Bambi, can't you understand?\ |
| 265 | Bambi, it's better with a man\ |
| 266 | All your lovers - they just look like you\ |
| 267 | But they can only do the things that you do\ |
| 268 | Come on, baby, and take me by the hand\ |
| 269 | I'm gonna show you what it's like to be loved by a man'' |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[folder:Newspaper Comics]] |
| 273 | * ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Dallas#Outland_and_Opus "Outland"]], where Steve Dallas was subjected to electroshock therapy. |
| 274 | * Poked fun at in a ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' strip, where Lacey Davenport and Joanie visit a homosexuality-awareness meeting. Lacey, not very familiar with the homosexual community, kindly asks them "But have you ''really'' tried dating some nice girls?" One of the men replies "It doesn't work like that, ma'am." |
| 275 | [[/folder]] |
| 276 | |
| 277 | [[folder:Religion]] |
| 278 | * ''Literature/TheBible'': |
| 279 | ** Paul the apostle in [[Literature/BookOfCorinthians 1st Corinthians]] seems to believe it is possible through the power of God working in people's lives. In 1st Corinthians 6:9-10, he lists "effeminates" and "abusers of themselves with mankind" (read today as "homosexuals") as among those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In verse 11, he says, "And such were some of you — but you have been washed, you have been sanctified, and you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." |
| 280 | ** Jesus Himself hints at this when He tells the people of Capernaum, "If the mighty works that were done in you were done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the people of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for you." ([[Literature/TheFourGospels Matthew 11:23-24]]) |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 284 | * ''TabletopGame/GURPSTechnomancer'': While common with the proper magic, this is not a common practice. At least one senator supports it, however. |
| 285 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' In Canal Priests of Mars the John Douglas 9th Marquess of Queensbury is bringing his effeminate son Alfred to Mars to get him out of Creator/OscarWilde's influence and to 'toughen' him. Historically he would in 1895 trick Oscar Wilde into suing him -which ended up sending Oscar Wilde to prison. Historically Alfred didn't meet Oscar Wilde until 1891 and Canal Priests of Mars is presumably set in 1889 so this is slightly ahistorical. |
| 286 | * ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' features Homogeniety Incorporated, a private firm that offers to cure your non-heterosexual urges. Good news: it works! Bad news: it also cures every single one of your ''other'' urges and turns you into a blank, featureless [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous fomor]] that lashes out at the slightest bit of "abnormality." |
| 287 | [[/folder]] |
| 288 | |
| 289 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 290 | * From ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'': The song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWA_jr-AwyA Turn It Off]] starts off as various Mormon missionaries giving advice on "turning off" unpleasant feelings/memories (sister dying of cancer, physically abusive father) but once a 'formerly gay' missionary reveals his struggles with his "really strange feelings for Steve" the song suddenly concentrates on advice about how to stop having gay thoughts, even though this is not remotely related to the main character's problem. It's as funny as it is sad. |
| 291 | -->''"Imagine that your brain is made of tiny boxes, then find the box that's gay and CRUSH IT!"''\ |
| 292 | ''"Boys should be with girls, that's heavenly father's plan. So, If you ever feel you'd rather be with a man, turn it off."''\ |
| 293 | '' "Being gay is bad but lying is worse. Just realize you have a curable curse, and turn it off!'' |
| 294 | * ''Theatre/TheBoysInTheBand''. Michael and Donald both wish to be "cured" of their homosexuality; Donald is even seeing a shrink to help him. Other characters, like Emory and Harold, refuse to be cured, and in Harold's case, mocks Michael's self-loathing. |
| 295 | * Peterson Toscano's one-man show ''Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House'' is about the utter failure of this trope in the real world. |
| 296 | * ''The Latent Heterosexual'' by Creator/PaddyChayefsky has this happen accidentally with a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage (for tax purposes) between a CampGay author and a prostitute. |
| 297 | -->'''Christine''': When I first met my husband, he was a faggot, junkie, poet. Well, he stopped being a faggot, he kicked the junk, and he hasn't written a word since last spring. |
| 298 | * In the musical ''Theatre/OnlyHeavenKnows'', set in the 1940s and '50s, Alan sings the TearJerker "Where is the Love?" before going to get shock treatments to cure himself of homosexuality. |
| 299 | [[/folder]] |
| 300 | |
| 301 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 302 | * In the 11th major expansion Monks and Mystics of ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'', it featured a Satanic cult where your character's homosexuality can be "cured" by certain sexual events, such as a satanic orgy with a long-tail succubus. However, homosexuality can be "bestow upon" you by demons. |
| 303 | * In ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition'', one of the major reasons Dorian Pavus left Tevinter was because [[spoiler:his own ''father'' tried to use BloodMagic to make Dorian heterosexual (it should be noted that this has more to do with Tevinter obsession with bloodlines, rather than ''actual'' dislike of homosexuality in itself). The ritual is noted to have had a significant risk of lobotomizing him instead.]] |
| 304 | * An apparent case of this was the cause of a huge amount of controversy with the character [[CuteBruiser Soleil]] from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates''. Soleil is a bisexual ActionGirl with a preference for women, [[AllWomenAreLustful whose wandering eye]] [[DistractedByTheSexy leads to problems in battle]]; she asks the male Avatar for help, which involves him [[SlippingAMickey giving her a powder in her drink without her knowledge]] that makes her see everyone with genders reversed, clearing the way for the two of them to hook up since she now sees the Avatar as a cute girl. Creator/{{Nintendo}} ''did'' admit that the original scene came out terribly, said that they didn't mean for it to come off as gay conversion therapy, and both apologized and changed the scene for the localization: here Soleil and the Male Avatar mutually agree on having her blindfolded as she mentally and physically trains with him to focus better on the battlefield. |
| 305 | * In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', the arch-Conservative and [[ArmoredClosetGay anti-gay]] Deputy Mayor of Liberty City Bryce Dawkins ends up getting outed after evidence is released of him having a relationship with [[CampGay Bernie Crane]]. He continues to deny his homosexuality, insisting he is instead going to "rehab" to correct "personal failings". |
| 306 | [[/folder]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 309 | * [[spoiler:Shizune Hakamichi]]'s route in ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' [[DeconstructedTrope shows why this is a]] '''[[DeconstructedTrope terrible]]''' [[DeconstructedTrope idea]], with [[spoiler:Misha's infamous [[SexForSolace "comfort"]] scene]]. In the end [[spoiler:Misha is still in love with Shizune, both she and Hisao feel ''terrible'' about their tryst since them having sex equaled to Hisao cheating on Shizune, ''and'' said tryst results in the route's [[MultipleEndings Bad Ending]] where while Shizune never finds out about the cheating in itself, she breaks up with Hisao anyway because [[ItsNotYouItsMe she mistakenly believes she is a hindrance in Hisao and Misha's lives]].]] |
| 310 | [[/folder]] |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 313 | * The ''WebAnimation/QueerDuck'' episode "Oh Christ!" has a religious fundamentalist try to cure Queer Duck of being gay. The therapy sessions don't work on Queer Duck at all and he ultimately leads the rest of the gay men the fundamentalist is trying to convert into a fabulous dance routine. |
| 314 | [[/folder]] |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 317 | * ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'' has devices that can change one's orientation easily, but it's only seen used to keep up when one's significant other [[GenderBender switches gender]] (which can happen accidentally). |
| 318 | * ''WebComic/DumbingOfAge'' mocks a story arc from ''ComicStrip/NineChickweedLane'', in which Seth, who identifies as gay, falls for a female dancer because of how well she danced, by having the [[ShowWithinAShow parody]] say "[[https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/semi/ I'm fixed! Your matchless legs have cured me of my homosexuality!]]" (Look under Joyce's strip.) |
| 319 | * Inverted by ''Webcomic/LeftoverSoup'''s LovableSexManiac Maxine, who underwent months of intense "[[UsefulNotes/{{Pornography}} training]]" to cure her ''hetero''sexuality and become bisexual, pretty much just so she could perv on the ''entire'' population of the planet instead of just half. Apparently, it was easier than giving up bacon when she decided to go vegan. |
| 320 | -->'''Maxine''': As far as I'm concerned, monosexuality, [[{{Polyamory}} like monogamy]], is a hurdle to be overcome. My yen for yin is entirely artificial. [...] Those people who say you're born with one orientation and are stuck with it? Those people are QUITTERS. |
| 321 | * The "rape them straight" variant shows up in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' when two rednecks overhear Ash and Missi's LesYay conversation and decide to "fix" them. Luckily, a friend of the girls' chases them off by saying he's taken pictures with his phone and is ready to go to the cops. The rednecks let everyone go but set up an ambush to get the phone and the pictures. [[PayEvilUntoEvil Then an angel kills them both]]. |
| 322 | * In ''{{Webcomic/Rain|2010}}'', Rudy and Maria's parents look into camps for "curing" the pair's homosexuality. Both of them received a book called "How to cure homosexuality and reopen the gates of heaven for yourself" for Christmas. |
| 323 | * Exploited in ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo''. After Landon's fundamentalist mother forbids him from dating [[GoodBadGirl Larisa]] following a rather disastrous home visit, Michelle intervenes by sending her a call falsely claiming that everyone at school was convinced that Landon was gay and Larisa was curing him. Surprisingly, it works and Landon's mother allows them to continue dating (with the caveat that she never wants to see Larisa again). |
| 324 | * A ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1525#comic comic]] shows a "gay vaccine" made by pro-gay people to trick anti-gay people into buying it. Naturally, it's just a saline solution. |
| 325 | * A reverse example occurs early in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' when [[TheDitz Monette]] insists she's a lesbian who just ends up sleeping with guys all the time and wants help to become properly gay. |
| 326 | -->'''Peejee''': You could always have sex with Davan.\ |
| 327 | '''Aubrey''': [[LastHetRomance Plenty of his lovers switched teams afterwards]].\ |
| 328 | '''Davan''': Hey! Fuck you! That's only happened twice! |
| 329 | * The last issue of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' before its long hiatus involves Chris-chan donating some of his "[[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday pure straight]]" blood to science so that they can create a vaccine [[ArtisticLicensePharmacology that erases homosexuality]] [[LegoGenetics on a genetic level]], which he uses to turn his arch-nemesis straight and "turned him good" and injects into the water supply with the help of TimeTravel, eventually eradicating homosexuality off the face of the Earth entirely. It also cured UsefulNotes/{{asexuality}} too. For some reason, they didn't use future Chris. And it raises some questions though: did the distribution of the gay vaccine in the past create a time paradox, or did the gay vaccine simply fail? |
| 330 | ** The fact that he terms it specifically as a vaccine brings some added lulz, as vaccines are made from the blood of someone who ''already has'' what you're trying to cure. Whoops. And naturally, [[SarcasmBlind he got the idea from the Family Guy example below]]. To compound the ridiculousness even further, he then proceeded to legalize gay sex in [=CWCville=] within the next few pages. |
| 331 | ** To add further ridiculousness Chris eventually identified as a female lesbian. The plot point was epically {{retcon}}ned so that all previous mentions of homosexuality in a negative light were now replaced with "Zazi Nombies". Hilariously, they still need to fix it with Chris' pure straight blood. |
| 332 | * ''{{Webcomic/Spinnerette}}'': [[spoiler:Sara Nicole Megan]], a former Pumpkin Queen, voluntarily takes psychotropic drugs to "keep on the straight and narrow". It doesn't seem to work fully though, as she's turned on when watching [[CatFight Mecha Maid and Spinnerette fighting]]. |
| 333 | * [[spoiler:Yoona]] from ''Webcomic/WelcomeToRoom305'' is a lesbian who [[{{Gayngst}} hates the fact]] that she's gay. As a teenager, she tried to 'cure' herself but that didn't work so she eventually just stopped dating period. |
| 334 | [[/folder]] |
| 335 | |
| 336 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 337 | * The web series ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErG963U3hxQ Coming In]]'' stars Mitchell, a gay man who wakes up one day attracted to women instead of men. After attempts to go back to liking men fail, Mitchell attempts to navigate his newfound world of heterosexuality. No reason is ever given for the change - when Mitchell's father proudly claims he was only going through a phase of being gay, Mitchell shuts him down, saying that isn't how it works. Early on, Mitchell goes to an "ex-gay" meeting for support, only to see that the men are clearly still attracted to men. |
| 338 | * [[https://www.fmylife.com/article/get-with-the-times_156737.html This anecdot]] on Website/FMyLife is about an employee being threatened by his boss to get fired unless he "cures" his lesbian daughter because she is dating the boss' daughter. |
| 339 | * The [[StealthParody Landover Baptist Church]], via its charismatic spokeswoman Mrs. Betty Bowers ("America's Best Christian"), runs an outreach aimed at reforming gay men and women - Baptists Are Saving Homosexuals. Indeed, she boasts of the sheer number of gays who have been [=BASHed=] by the saving love of Jesus Christ. |
| 340 | * The [[https://www.youtube.com/show/sassygayfriend Sassy Gay Friend]] reveals that he was the victim of a failed attempt at this in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJLvl9vk-eE the Macbeth video]]. |
| 341 | -->'''Lady Macbeth''': You can't change my mind. I've already prayed to the gods to remove my femininity.\ |
| 342 | '''[[CampGay Sassy Gay Friend]]''': Ooh! Praying away ''femininity''! Yeah! I tried that at a Jesus camp for gay teens. [[ForegoneConclusion Spoiler alert! It didn't work!]] |
| 343 | * ''WebVideo/SkyCorpHomeVideo'' gives us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbZ-YRWsN00 Closetra®]], a pill to suppress gay thoughts. |
| 344 | [[/folder]] |
| 345 | |
| 346 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 347 | * ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': |
| 348 | ** Inverted when Stan tries to make himself gay, to prove by analogy that if straights can change, gays can too. He finds it doesn't work for him (as the guy he tried to sleep with said, "it's not a choice, either you're gay or you aren't"), and he uses the knowledge as a basis for inviting gays into the Conservative party, because... "otherwise they might become liberal." ''(gasp)'' |
| 349 | ** One of Stan's CIA co-workers (whose sexuality is confusing, to say the least) claimed he was once gay, but after he got out of real estate his "sodomy cleared up like that". |
| 350 | * On ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', [[CampGay Gillette]] reveals that he was married for two years... [[TheBeard to a lesbian]]. They met at a Pray-Away-The-Gay bible group. It was a weird time in his life. |
| 351 | * In ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', after [[{{Gayngst}} being alienated from his girlfriend upon finding out he's gay]], Xandir tries to wish himself straight on a magic lamp (with "encouragement" from [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero Clara]]). [[WhatTheHellHero The genie refuses to grant it and calls him out on it]]. |
| 352 | * In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter becomes gay after a medical experiment and leaves Lois. Stewie and Brian then take Peter by force to a Christian "Straight Camp." Doesn't work, but by the end of the episode his "gay gene" naturally wears off (just between an all-male orgy) and [[StatusQuoIsGod he's back as a "straight" man]]. Peter, through the years, seems to be just as inclined towards screwing anyone as Quagmire, so how much of this really was Peter being "turned" and then "cured" of homosexuality vs. something making Peter react much more strongly to male pheromones than normal combining with his penchant for self-delusion is anyone's guess. |
| 353 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Proposition Infinity", "robosexuals" Amy and Bender are respectively subjected to being "cured" of their attraction, complete with Bender going to the robot equivalent of a conversion therapy camp. In a bit of BlackComedy, Morbo exasperatedly says "What's next? ''Gay'' robot marriage?'', implying that, even in the thirty-first century, there are [[HereWeGoAgain still]] issues concerning human(oid) rights. |
| 354 | * An [[Recap/KingOfTheHillS5E15LuanneVirgin20 episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' offers a more sympathetic take on this. Peggy admits that before she met Hank she slept with a gay male friend in an attempt to "fix" him. In this case, the man was the one who asked because (as Peggy puts it), being gay in Texas in the 60s wasn't exactly a lot of fun. When Luanne asks "Did you fix him?", Peggy responds "Oh, no, Luanne, he was not broken. Just gay. Very, very gay." |
| 355 | * ''WesternAnimation/RickAndSteveTheHappiestGayCoupleInAllTheWorld'': Subverted/played for laughs. In "Mom Fight", Evan encourages Chuck to get out and take better advantage of the fact that they have an open relationship, with one night a week when they're allowed to sleep with other people; Chuck ends up experimenting with a woman and enjoying it. Evan is deeply upset and decides to join the ex-gay movement so that he can have a night of revenge sex with Condi Ling. Of course, the effort [[EpicFail fails epically]] -- instead of making him straight it makes him TooKinkyToTorture -- and of course, he has no serious interest in actually being meaningfully "cured" in the first place. |
| 356 | * Parodied in a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' TV Funhouse short with "Heteroy", the Christian fundamentalist superhero whose powers convert gays to straights when they prove resistant to converting through other means. |
| 357 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 358 | ** In the episode "Homer's Phobia", Homer panics that Bart might be gay after contact with kitsch memorabilia seller [[Creator/JohnWaters John]]. In order to prevent or cure any possible homosexuality, Homer takes Bart to stare at a billboard of a sexy woman (it just makes him want to smoke since it's a cigarette ad), to a steel mill to see manly men at work (who all turn out to be gay), deer hunting, and finally just shooting at reindeer in a pen. |
| 359 | --->'''Homer''': [John] didn't give you ''gay'', did he? |
| 360 | ** In "Future-Drama", a FlashForward episode, Bart sees Smithers with his female fiancee. |
| 361 | --->'''Bart''': Mr. Smithers? I thought you were, you know-- uh.\ |
| 362 | '''Smithers''': Haha, no, I'm straight - as long as I take these injections every ten minutes. ''[injects himself]'' [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday I LOVE BOOBIES!]] |
| 363 | ** Ned Flanders once said the reason he was so in shape is that he "runs for the cure...of homosexuality!" Ironically enough, he wouldn't be the namer of StupidSexyFlanders if he wasn't fit. |
| 364 | ** Smithers explains his being photographed leaving a burlesque house: "My parents insisted I give it a try." |
| 365 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': |
| 366 | ** In the episode "Cartman Sucks", Butters' dad worries that Butters is bi-curious. Butters is sent off to a Christian conversion therapy camp, where the idea that the boys there are just "confused" is repeatedly reinforced (if you weren't confused before you went, you will be afterward). At the conversion therapy camp, the boys [[DrivenToSuicide are miserable and suicide is common]]. As in, [[RunningGag happens every five minutes]]. Meanwhile [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Butters doesn't have a clue as to what is going on]] (though it doesn't stop him from giving a PatrickStewartSpeech at the end). |
| 367 | ** In "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", Stan tries to try to cure his dog of homosexuality, before Big Gay Al makes his debut and espouses gay civil rights for animals. |
| 368 | ** {{Averted|Trope}}, {{subverted|Trope}}, {{inverted|Trope}}, and possibly {{played straight}} with Mr. Garrison: he has gone back and forth between being a man preferring women, a transgender woman preferring men, a transgender woman preferring women, back to a cisgender man preferring women, and back to a man preferring men. [[ExtremeOmnisexual Horses and other barnyard animals may have been sprinkled throughout]]. The general consensus is that Mr. Garrison has not so much "been cured of being homosexual" twice over as he is simply so psychologically depraved that he'll become sexually attracted to whatever is considered the most "deviant" thing to be attracted to at that very moment, just because it's considered "vile". |
| 369 | --->'''Chef''': Chil'ren, there's a big difference between gay people and Mr. Garrison. Do you understand that? |
| 370 | * On ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', the joke has been made at least a few times. In season 2, episode 3, Hank mentions that Dr. Venture had been working on a "cure for the gay gene," until stopped by protesters. In season 3, episode 13, Holy Diver (formerly Shore Leave) claims to have "banished the demons of homosexuality" and to have been "cured by the Lord." Of course, that was [[spoiler:just part of his cover. His partner, on the other hand, wasn't gay, and simply did him as part of ''his'' cover]]. |
| 371 | [[/folder]] |
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