My grandfather was catholic (also sexist, racist and homophobic), but we managed to persuade him that there was nothing wrong with my cousin doing things with his mother. Also, younger generations are less homophobic.

In my country, we used to had the perception that old people was retrograde. That it was a waste of time discussing this things with them, but also the implication that they were “silly and wrong”. That you shouldn’t take them seriously when they said things like that. So thankfully my aunt and my cousin remained close (until my cousin became a teenager, he is the rebellious type XD).

In a way, even if we have a new generation of homophobes, we were successful, since now only far right openly say that being gay is wrong. They complain about “political correctness”, wokeness, etc. But gay marriage is legal, we just passed the trans law and hopefully, we would keep advancing.

But whenever try to understand fanatics, I remember the things my grampa used to say. There is weird logic to their hate. It is based on lies, fear, insecurity and selfishness, but it is there.

You are absolutely right to love yourself and to say that people should love themselves as they are (except if they are sexist, homophobic or racist, then they should take a hard look at themselves). Anyway, conversion therapy would never work because there was nothing to fix to begin with.