Google Loses LGBTQ Endorsement Over Gay 'Conversion Therapy' App

Google finds itself the object of derision by the LGBTQ community for its inaction in removing an app on Google Play promoting the discredited and fallacious practice of “conversion therapy,” which aims to transform gays into straight people.

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. LGBTQ group, stripped Google of its perfect 100 on the annual Corporate Equality Index for the latter’s inaction on the app developed by Christian group, the Living Hope Ministries.

This same app was removed by Apple and Amazon from their app stores in January but Google, has yet to follow suit despite repeated demands for it to do so. Microsoft has also removed the app from its store. This app is being dubbed as the “pray away the gay” app.

Google will have its rating withheld until the app is removed from its Android store, said Human Rights Campaign. It’s only the third time in the 17-year history of the index a rating has been withheld.

“We have been urging Google to remove this app because it is life-threatening to LGBTQ youth and also clearly violates the company’s own standards,” said the Human Rights Campaign in a statement.

Gay conversion therapy has been repeatedly denounced by almost every prestigious medical institution. It’s a subset of “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts” (SOCE), which consists of methods attempting to change the sexual orientation of homosexual and bisexual people to heterosexuality.

These discredited methods include behavioral techniques, cognitive behavioral techniques, psychoanalytic techniques, medical approaches, and religious and spiritual approaches, as is the case with Living Hope Ministries.

The longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences, and the health and mental health professions is homosexuality and bisexuality “are per se normal and positive variations of human sexual orientation."

The Living Hope Ministries app is a collection of audio and video recordings of Bible verses, devotionals, and other Christian teachings. Resorting to Christianity is part of this group’s attempt to change an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual using psychological or spiritual interventions.

Gay conversion therapy is often described as cruel and linked with substance abuse and suicide.