united-states abuse
In the United States, can I sue my ex significant other for turning me gay?
<p>Suppose that a person A happily entered a mutually romantic heterosexual relationship with another adult B and after suffering through three years of daily abuse, deliberate cruelty and elaborate attempts by B to make A feel jealous A  separated themselves from B and swore off B's gender as a whole. Suppose that A is now an active homosexual and A and A's same gen partner C have decided to marry. Can A sue B for deliberate cruelty, abuse and emotional distress so severe that it turned A into a homosexual?</p>

<p>For cruelty and abuse, yes.</p>
<p>For sexual orientation change, you would need to prove a loss, i.e. that you are damaged or diminished as a result of that change, and your current partner might find that rather offensive!  You would also need to prove your partner's culpability for that.</p>
<p>Those are very, very bold claims, which will require very, very bold proofs.  Realistically I think your prospects are very, very poor.  You have much better prospects on the ordinary abuse.</p>
<p>Further, the conversion claim will have terrible optics. It will gain national notoriety and will be the butt of jokes on late-night talk shows and &quot;what is wrong with the world?&quot; editorial columns.  <em>And I don't think I'm telling you anything you don't already know</em>.</p>
<p>It will generate a great deal of negative publicity for you, will reflect badly on LGBT (which is something you ought to think about since you're part of it)... and you will be <em>widely</em> viewed as  publicity-seeking opportunist and drama-maker, including by the judge and jury, and it will undercut your abuse claim.   For that reason, the opponent's legal team will do everything possible to amplify that.</p>
<p>The long-term effects will be that you'll be &quot;Oh yeah, <em>that</em> person&quot;, and people won't take you seriously for decades to come.  It'll hurt your long term social and employment prospects.</p>
<p>It's the hard way to get your own page on Wikipedia.</p>

<p>If A is now happy with C and intending to marry, it would be hard to see how A's current same-gender preference is a wrong justifying money damages. Besides which it would be necessary to prove to the satisfaction of a judge or jury that B's actions has such an effect on A, which would be hard since I understand that current expert opinion does not support such a theory.</p>
<p>However, leaving aside the question of orientation  &quot;daily abuse, deliberate cruelty and elaborate attempts by B to make A feel jealous&quot;  might <strong>possibly</strong> constitute grounds for legal action. It would depend on the details of the &quot;abuse&quot;. Physical assault, if proved, could be grounds for action. So can &quot;Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress&quot;. But there would need to be something far beyond an ordinary dysfunctional romantic relationship. As lot of this would be a matter of state law, so it would matter which state this was in. Unless the facts are rather extreme I do not see such an action being successful.</p>
<p>Anyone seriously considering such a legal action would do well to consult a competent lawyer.</p>

<p>A can certainly sue B, but any argument about A's sexuality is best avoided.  The more persuasive evidence would be the specific factual details of the &quot;daily abuse, deliberate cruelty and elaborate attempts by B to make A feel jealous.&quot;</p>
