Reparative therapy is the notion that homosexuality and transgenderism can, and should, be "cured." Many reparative therapy "camps" are maintained where afflicted children may be sent by their parents (though some adults also send themselves to these boot camps) to be "cured" of homosexuality: however, these re-education facilities amount to little more than non-fatal (at least not intentionally fatal) concentration camps. Many camps are deliberately located outside United States territory in order to avoid US jurisdiction and, ostensibly, circumvent US laws.

Some critics are concerned that reparative therapy puts its "patients" at risk for suicide.

In 2015, Barack Obama came out against the practice, calling for its end in the United States.

Transgender reparative therapy is occasionally practiced on children who display cross-gender behaviors, often by misguided professional psychiatrists who seek to, for example, get young boys to "drop the Barbie." Such efforts to force young children into rigid gender roles are eerily similar to the practices of gay "conversion therapy."