Basic Trope: Homosexuality is seen as an illness that has to be remedied.
- Straight: Alice holds an intervention when Bob shows a little too much interest in Charlie.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice does so when Bob holds Charlie's hand.
- Alice tries to do so when she sees Bob and Charlie merely hugging.
- Downplayed: Alice suggests that Bob should try to be straight instead of bi.
- Justified:
- Bob attributes his sexual mindset to abnormal events early in his life which have affected him psychologically, and desires to be rewired of his own volition.
- Alice is a homophobe and cannot stand the fact that Bob, who she was in love with, came out as gay.
- Inverted: The culture has reproduction by artificial insemination and sees homosexuality as the only healthy form of sexuality.
- Subverted:
- The intervention seems to work, but it just makes Bob repressed.
- The intervention seems to work, but only because Bob was bisexual, and now focuses exclusively on women.
- The intervention originally worked, but Bob still feels like his heart belongs to Charlie, and so he slowly undoes the changes caused by the intervention, causing him to go back to being gay after a month or so.
- Double Subverted: ...but then Bob thinks about the message a little more and turns straight.
- Parodied:
- Alice tries to take Bob to an actual hospital to cure his homosexuality.
- There is a homosexual rehabilitation center.
- An Absent-Minded Professor accidentally develops "ze cure for ze gays!" while looking for a Cure for Cancer.
- Every time Alice visits Bob she brings him box of graham crackers because she read a book (from the 1800s) that they cure sexually abnormal behaviors. Not only is Bob still gay, but now that he put on a few pounds his boyfriend is more attracted to him than ever before.
- Bob and Charlie roleplay abusive conversion therapy as a BDSM scenario.
- Zig Zagged: A story about a homosexual who changes orientation, goes back, tries again, etc. Whether success or failure ensues depends on the author's views.
- Averted: Either Bury Your Gays or social acceptance of homosexuality.
- Enforced:
- The author believes homosexuality is wrong/harmful but has no hatred whatsoever.
- The person who wrote this work thinks homosexuals can and should be turned straight.
- It was the era's mindset, and the author isn't one to gloss over it.
- Lampshaded: "Bob is gay? Uh-oh. You just know someone's gonna try to intervene."
- Invoked:
- In an explicitly religious work, a homosexual person wants to change.
- In a non-religious work, a religious character is afraid for (NOT of) a homosexual friend / family member. Whether this is seen as a good thing or a bad thing depends on the author's views.
- Exploited:
- Andy and Bob are rivals for Charlie's affection. Andy arranges for Bob to be turned heterosexual, leaving no obstacle to him getting together with Charlie.
- Alice is so obsessed with "fixing" gays she will have sex with them to make them straight. Charlie thus pretends to be gay so Alice will have sex with him.
- Defied:
- Bob refuses to have anything to do with such attempts.
- "Hey, if Barb wants to date Carol, everyone wins. I'm not gonna stop her."
- The intervention doesn't work, but Alice doesn't try again and just leaves Bob and Charlie alone.
- Discussed:
- An Anvilicious (maybe vicious, maybe not) Character Filibuster by the gay person on tolerance.
- Or a Character Filibuster by the Heteronormative Crusader on how homosexuals are sick and need such a cure.
- Conversed: The same, about a Show Within a Show.
- Deconstructed:
- The intervention damages him psychologically and emotionally, and Bob is no longer able to lead a normal life.
- The intervention fails, Bob gives Alice "The Reason You Suck" Speech while Charlie exposes her of homophobia for judging and not accepting his boyfriend for who he was, and both their friendship and Alice's reputation are killed by it.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob finds himself a girlfriend/wife, and they manage enough compromise to maintain a stable relationship.
- Having seen the intervention failed, Alice decides she can't cure Bob, and becomes more accepting of him.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice tries wacky, out-of-the-box cures, such as having Bob hold breast implants or buying him a blow-up doll. And she keeps track of her progress by repeatedly asking him:Alice: Are you still gay?
Bob: A little bit... I think I'm around 69/31 in the Kinsey Scale. - Bob sees a dorky unattractive man and gets so horrified he decides he is now attracted to women.
- Alice tries wacky, out-of-the-box cures, such as having Bob hold breast implants or buying him a blow-up doll. And she keeps track of her progress by repeatedly asking him:
- Played For Drama:
- Alice tries to torture the gay out of Bob.
- Bob is a villain, and he places a lot of his identity in his homosexuality. Alice turns him straight as a punishment for his crimes.
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