History Main / CureYourGays

* An 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."

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. One episode involved a doctor that claims to be able to cure homosexuality who 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.

* ComicBook/XMen never had to deal with this... literally, anyway. Mutants are [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] used as a metaphor for homosexuality, and there have been a number of storylines where someone tries to cure the mutant gene, which almost always backfires. Emma Frost discusses this trope with a scientist.
-->'''Emma''': What's next, a cure for the gay gene?\\
'''Scientist''': Homosexuality isn't a threat to the human race.\\
'''Emma''': We are clearly watching different televangelists.
* Hilariously subverted in [[http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2089770.html this]] ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' issue.[[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]]
-->'''Stargirl''': How do you feel, Todd?\\
'''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.\\
'''Green Lantern''': Son?\\
'''Obsidian''': That's right, dad! I'm cured! Isn't that great!\\

'''Obsidian''': Relax folks. Only kidding. Still gay. Seriously, I wish you could all see your faces right now.

* 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 [[WhatAnIdiot took this seriously]].

* In the 11th major expansion Monks and Mystics of ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'', 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.

* ''Series/WillAndGrace''. Subverted in one episode guest-stars Creator/NeilPatrickHarris (who was still officially in the closet at the time) as the leader of an ex-gay club who 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.]]

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 neurotic, unhealthy rejection of men or [[{{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.

** 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 {{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.

** They went in the opposite direction when an {{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.

* 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 [[YouKeepUsingThatWord 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 {{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?

* In ''{{Webcomic/Rain}}'', Rudy and Maria's parents look into camps for "curing" the pair's homosexuality. Both of them receive a book called "How to cure homosexuality and reopen the gates of heaven for yourself" for Christmas.

* 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.

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gayaway_2.png]]
[[caption-width-right:320:[[HaveAGayOldTime But I wanted to be happy!]]]]

* 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.

* In the 11th major expansion Monks and Mystics of ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'', 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.

* The TV movie ''Senior Trip'' 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.

* The film ''A Different Story'' is of a gay man and a lesbian moving in together and both suddenly stop being gay and fall in love with each other.

* In the 1981 Marathi 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 of 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]].

* ''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 Rock Hudson, who even played this scene at parties for friends who knew he was gay.

* ''Literature/AnnieOnMyMind'': Mrs. Poindexter, Ms. Baxter and Sally urge Liza to go see a psychiatrist and be "cured". Liza refuses this idea without hesitation.

* 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 pre-natal 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,

* The TV-movie ''Senior Trip'' 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.

* In the music video ''Be Mine'' of 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.

* [[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, portraying her girlfriend Sam as a vicious chick that hooks Luna on cocaine.

* 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.

* In ''[[http://gregegan.html.customer.netspace.net.au/MISC/ORACLE/Oracle.html Oracle]]'' by Creator/GregEgan, an alternate universe Alan Turing is locked in a punishingly cramped [[{{Anvilicious}} cage]] by the secret service in an attempt to cure him of his homosexuality. The NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Turing notices the Anviliciousness of the situation:

* ''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 therapy which, unfortunately, proves to be successful. The episode is infamous because actor Jonathan Frakes called out the producers for not having the guts to cast a man in the role of Soren.

* A ''Series/MrShow'' sketch: The "Good News" program on the What-to-Think Network tries to do this. A man keeps coming back over the years claiming that he's been cured, only to "relapse" again and again. The host claims he'll be back again after his next "relapse."

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 a 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]].

* {{Double Subver|sion}}ted in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Ranma and co try to cure what they think is Tsubasa's LesYay[[invoked]] crush on Ukyo by setting her up on a date with Ranma himself. However, in the end, it turned out that while Tsubasa was an extremely convincing WholesomeCrossdresser ''he'' was totally heterosexual. ''Ranma ½'', unfortunately more or less a product of its time, has a slight stigma against homosexuality: Ukyo, Akane and Ranma consider Tsubasa a "[[{{Hentai}} pervert]]" that needs correcting when they find out he's only interested in girls (at this point they still think he's a girl), and when Tsubasa gets exposed as a stalking transvestite, he, of all people, says he doesn't like guys because he's NOT a "pervert".

* Occurs very commonly in ''ComicBook/ChickTracts''. 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 exorcize those demons and immediately stop being gay.

* Lady Vivian in Merlin CrackFic ''FanFic/AVeryHairySituation'' She's an anomaly in a story which uses Cure Your Straights as a plot device.

* ''Film/ByHookOrByCrook'': Val's parents sent him to a mental instutition 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.

* Horrifically subverted in ''Film/TheImitationGame'' when Alan Turing is put on hormone therapy, "chemical castration", after being arrested for indecency.

* ''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.

* In ''Love Drugged'' 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.]]

* 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.

* ''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 which 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.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. One episode involved a doctor that claims to be able to cure homosexuality who 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.

* ''Series/MadAboutYou'': Paul's mother 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.

* ''Our America With Lisa Ling'' 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.

* ''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 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.]]]]

* 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.

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', the arch-Conservative and [[ArmoredClosetGay anti-gay]] Deputy Mayor of Liberty City, Brice Dawkins, ends up getting outed after evidence is released of him having a relationship with [[CampGay Bernie Craine]]. He continues to deny his homosexuality, insisting he is instead going to "rehab" to correct "personal failings".

** To add further ridiculousness Chris eventually identified as a female lesbian. The plot point was epicly {{retcon}}ned so that all previous mentions of homosexuality in a negative light where now replace with "Zazi Nombies". Hilariously, they still need to fix it with Chris' pure straight blood.

* 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]].

** 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.

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 a LGBT person [[{{Gayngst}} tries it but fails]]. Can be inverted, commonly in erotica and erotic FanFiction, to have a character be [[PersecutionFlip "cured" of heterosexuality]].

Can be TruthInTelevision if the trope is merely alluded to, such as a [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster homophobic character ''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 a LGBT person [[{{Gayngst}} tries it but fails]]. Can be inverted, commonly in erotica and erotic FanFiction, to have a character be [[PersecutionFlip "cured" of heterosexuality]].