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Episode details

World Service,4 mins

What it's like to experience so-called 'conversion therapy'

Newsday

Available for over a year

Ministers in Germany have approved a draft bill which would effectively ban so-called "conversion therapy" targeting transgender and gay people. If the bill passes both houses of parliament, Germany will become the first major European nation to make advertising or offering conversion therapy illegal. Mathew Shurka’s family spent $50,000 putting him through gay conversion therapy in the United States between the ages of 16 to 21, after it was recommended to them by mental health professionals. He says he is scarred from the experience and believes every country should follow Germany's example. (Photo: Mathew Shurka. Credit: Desiree Navarro/WireImage)

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