LGBT Civil Rights and Activism

and would ask him, nicely and without gritting my teeth, to tell me about it--how he decides who might benefit, what the therapy consists of (even if you already know), and how the long-term results have been.

If this election has taught us anything, it's that going toe-to-toe with people like this is pointless. They don't care about facts. I think, especially since this is someone you care about and who cares about you, trying sincerely to understand his motivation and talking to him about your own doubts--not bolstered with a bunch of print-outs from the American Psychological Assn., but your own doubts--is a way to keep communication open and allow him to find a way to change his mind. The more you present him with facts from experts, the more nut-jobs he's going to quote to you, and the harder he's going to dig in.

You might, gently and lovingly, ask him if, say, shocks to his genitals when shown pictures of naked women would make him become homosexual. And then talk about it, without forcing him to make a conclusion. Did he ever make a conscious decision about which sex he would fall in love/lust with? And not follow up with a triumphant "See? So why should it work for other people?"

If, on the other hand, he has stopped doing it, bake him some cookies.