Milo Yiannopolous to Open Conversion Therapy Facility in Florida

After declaring himself "sodomy free" last week, Milo Yiannopolous announced he will open a conversion therapy facility in Florida, the New York Post reports.

The right-wing provocateur who once identified as an openly gay Trump supporter said that he intends to "rebrand" the use of religious-based practices – a "Christian renaissance," as he calls it – in order to "help" those with same-sex attractions reorient their sexuality to something more heteronormative.

Of course, the former Breitbart talking head disparages what he terms "the gay lobby" for promoting inherent sexual orientation and gender identity, asserting without any shred of evidence, "What we also know for sure, is that 'born this way' is not science. It's public relations. It's a lie." Instead, Yiannopolous believes that "sexuality is inextricably linked and wrapped up" with LGTBQ peoples' politics, values, behavior and identity.

Yiannopolous admits "the jury's still out, scientifically" as to whether sexuality is inherent, but dismisses the research on the psychological harm conversion therapy has ultimately been proven to cause. Why? He offers up conservative canard, of course, claiming "since the eighties and nineties, we haven't really been able to do any research that doesn't conform to the propaganda because you cannot get funding for anything other than finding the gay gene."

He claims his work will "rescue people" – particularly a wealth of men that Yiannopolous claims have contacted him about changing their sexual orientation. Furthermore, he says he will fund research to prove the effectiveness of conversion therapy. The petulant attention-seekers, of course, pats himself on the back, claiming his efforts are a "noble cause."

"My aspiration is to rebrand, revitalize, rehabilitate what they call 'conversion therapy' for two new generations in the same way that I obliterated feminism for two generations, because it's dying, and horribly maligned, ridiculed and prosecuted industry. It's an industry in crisis, but it's an industry whose addressable market has never been larger," he said.

Perhaps there's a reason Yiannopolous has chosen Florida as the location for his new venture. In November, state courts put a halt to conversion therapy bans, more or less suggesting that a ban on the psychologically harmful practice violates the free speech rights of conservative religious counselors. Of course, this logic was reframed to focus on the rights of "clients to choose the counsel of their choice free of political censorship from government ideologues."

Meanwhile, religious leaders on an international level have recognized the harmful impact of conversion therapy and have called for an end to the practice.