What do you mean by the last part of the sentence "...given the environment"
I grew up in a gay friendly household... Came out at 15 and was instantly and immediately met with total acceptance and encouragement. I had literally
zero incentive to be anything other than what I was. I consider myself lucky to have grown up in such a circumstance, but that's not everyone's situation. The typical gay conversion therapy subject grows up in a highly religious household (typically fundamentalist Christian, though it happens to Muslims and Orthodox Jews as well) where homosexuality is regarded as a grave sin and very much not allowed.
In an environment like mine, a person whose native sexuality was a Kinsey 4 might well come out as bisexual young and be accepted. In an environment like the above, such a person would have a strong incentive to focus on the heterosexual desires and ignore the homosexual ones and would likely never admit that they had homosexual desires at all. This is what the Christians mean my the "you chose to be gay" argument: a great many people in the middle of the Kinsey scale
actually do choose to be straight and this muddles the fact that the people anchoring the far ends of the scale don't really get much/any choice in the matter.
Also, would a Kinsey 0 or 6 still be able to change if they were still willing? Curious. Obviously those individuals are exclusively attracted one gender, but like, if other willing people could do it, why couldn't they?
This goes back to how Kinsey defined his scale because the answer is "no, by definition" anyone who has the desire to change their sexual orientation is disqualified by the definition of a Kinsey 0 or 6 which excludes anyone who has had so much as a single fantasy about their non-preferred gender. If you have ever had a gay fantasy, then you are not a Kinsey 0, if you have ever had a straight fantasy then you are not a Kinsey 6.
As for the why of it; that gets us into the weeds of ecology... Any time you have a lasting change through hypnosis you have a set of factors that are shaping that change and making it more or less tenable as a long term outcome. Three common ecological factors you hear about in 12 step programs are Honesty, Openmindedness and Willingness. [list=][*]If you're not honest enough to admit your desires, you will never seek help in attaining them
[*]If you're not willing to change for some reason, then you will try to change but fail
[*]If you're not openminded enough to consider a proposed solution, then you will reject a solution that might otherwise be effective [/list]
These are, of course, only a small sampling of the kind of things that can interfere in a change process... A highly religious person who has the deep seeded belief that homosexuality is sinful might well need to reframe their religious beliefs to accommodate a change in sexual orientation (possible if you convert to a gay friendly denomination like Reform Judiaism, Episcopal or MCC Christianity, etc), but be unwilling to do so because they believe that their denomination's interpretation of the Bible is the only true one and converting to another denomination would send them to hell. Such a person is going to have a hard time with making gay conversion stick unless they do the religious reframing that they are unwilling to do.
Likewise, a gay agnostic trying to change through conversion therapy might well find that their adoption of an anti-gay brand of Christianity is unecological to the extent that though they might well begin to believe in Christianity writ large, they find the lack of acceptance unwelcoming and defect to a less anti-gay denomination, thereby defeating the straight conversion aspect of the conversion therapy and making them into a gay christian rather than a straight one.
Another classic ecology problem is lack of belief in the method used. Suppose the conversion therapy client instead of being an agnostic is a hardcore atheist instead... in that case the client simply fails to be convinced to convert to Christianity entirely because they already have a network of ideas completely debunking that belief system; and since religious conversion is the method used the effect on sexual orientation is nil even though the client is quite desperate to be straight. Such a client might well successfully turn though hypnosis that didn't use an explicitly religious mechanism. A similar ecology problem faces the folks trying to change through hypnosis when they are skeptical / disbelieving in hypnosis itself.
How do you know that people aren't making those claims just for attention?
because I have had gay sex with several former heterosexuals converted by my files who had never had gay sex before. I also know several transpeople who had no clue they were trans before hypnosis who now live in their chosen gender rather than the one they were assigned at birth.
As far as gender identity hypnosis, I am FTM transgender (a bit flexible though) I'm assuming I would be able to become cis with hypnosis? Again, gender identity seems to be biological so I'm not sure how hypnosis would work for it truly.
It would depend on how much flexibility you have and what the particular set of beliefs and ecology problems you have are.
Dr Kinsey didn't work as much on trans issues as sexual orientation, but the notion of a scale might be useful here. Consider the possibility that gender identity, like sexual orientation, is a scale that runs from 0 to 6 with 0 being totally cisgendered and 6 being totally transgendered. On such a scale I am the equivalent of a 2: I had some vague unhappiness about my gender, crossdressed a few times, had vague notions about getting neutered someday; but never really had the willingness to transition to female. I made the decision to hypnotize myself into being a gender secure masculine male and it worked for me -- I now completely lack ALL desire to be anything other than male, and want the most hypermasculine gender expression possible. However, given that I owe the hair on my chest and over an inch of dick to hypnosis and am a hypnotist, I have
100% confidence that hypnosis works for me... I am literally the ideal subject for such a transformation: more cis than trans, a "true believer" ecology when it comes to hypnosis, and a strong desire to change.
A hypnosis skeptic who was a "trans 5" (almost completely transgendered) might have a much more difficult time in erasing trans desires than someone like me who was merely a bit dissatisfied with their birth gender.
I still have some fear that I'm just fooling myself, but that's maybe that's normal for a skeptic that's just starting out.
There's your trouble. As long as you remain stuck in skepticism about hypnosis itself, any hypnotic solution is
doomed to fail. Hypno is literally all in your head and your headspace matters
a lot to whether you succeed or fail. If you wish to solve your problem hypnotically, I strongly suggest that you pick some harmless and unrelated hypnosis that will convince you that hypnosis does, in fact, work for you. Having a hands-free orgasm from hypnosis, or a blackout, or getting some minor body change (in my case chest hair was the convincer) will diffuse your skepticism about hypnosis itself and let you achieve results with other hypno from now on.