With Genocidal Intentions: Conversion Practices in North America

Hybrid event: presentor and panelists will be attending online. 
Presentation by Lucas Wilson + panel discussion.

Conversion practices--commonly referred to as conversion therapy--constitute the damaging efforts to change queer individuals' sexual orientations and/or gender identities and expressions. Despite the common misapprehension that conversion practices are a thing of the past--in North America, at least--such anti-queer efforts persist and continue to wreak havoc on countless members of LGBTQ+ communities, particularly those in high-control Christian contexts. Wilson will present a broadened definition of conversion practices before discussing the prevalence of conversion practices in North America and why the number of reported cases is likely inaccurate. Wilson will flesh out the ways by which conversion practitioners have, by definition, genocidal intentions that seek the eradication of LGBTQ+ communities.

Speaker Bio:

Lucas Wilson (he/him) is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Toronto Mississauga and was formerly the Justice, Equity, and Transformation Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Calgary. He is the editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy. He is also the author of At Home with the Holocaust: Postmemory, Domestic Space, and Second-Generation Holocaust Literature, which received the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award, as well as the co-editor of Emerging Trends in Third-Generation Holocaust Literature, which was named a 2024 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title. His public-facing writing has appeared in The Advocate, Queerty, LGBTQ Nation, and Religion Dispatches, among other venues. He is currently working on a new anthology of stories about LGBTQ+ experiences at Christian colleges, universities, seminaries, and divinity schools (under contract with The University of Georgia Press).

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Date: Thursday, January 22, 2026
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm MST
Location: Roundhouse (Allard Hall) | MacEwan University (Presentor and panelists will be attending online.)
OR Online (Please register for Zoom following link emailed with confirmation)
All are welcome to attend. Online event will be closed captioned. 

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Queer Horizons: A Speaker Series Exploring 2SLGBTQ+ Research and Community Work 

The Queer Horizons speaker series, presented by the MacEwan Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, profiles research and community work focused on 2SLGBTQ+ identities, issues, and topics. All events are free and open to everyone on campus and in the community.