Man who worked as top 'nversn therapist' out as gay | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• 'I WAS A RELIG ZEALOT THAT HURT PEOPLE.' AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY, A FORMER CONVERSN THERAPY LEAR IS APOLOGIZG TO THE LGBTQ COMMUNY
• MAN WHO WORKED AS TOP 'NVERSN THERAPIST' OUT AS GAY
• FORMER NVERSN THERAPY LEAR OUT AS GAY AND APOLOGIZ TO MUNY
• CONVERSN THERAPY ANIZATN FOUNR OUT AS GAY: 'PLEASE FIVE ME'
• 'I WAS WRONG! PLEASE FIVE ME!': CONVERSN THERAPY LEAR OUT AS GAY
• CONVERSN THERAPY CENTER FOUNR WHO SOUGHT TO TURN LGBTQ CHRISTIANS STRAIGHT SAYS HE’S GAY, REJECTS ‘CYCLE OF SELF SHAME’
• CONVERSN THERAPY LEAR COM OUT AS GAY, ISSU APOLOGY
• ‘I WAS WRONG’: CHRISTIAN NVERSN THERAPY FOUNR OUT AS GAY

'I WAS A RELIG ZEALOT THAT HURT PEOPLE.' AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY, A FORMER CONVERSN THERAPY LEAR IS APOLOGIZG TO THE LGBTQ COMMUNY

A founr and former lear of a South Carola fah-based nversn therapy program has e out as gay. McKrae Game, 51, is speakg out a new terview after he announced he was gay June, about two years after he was fired om Hope for Wholens, the nversn therapy program he found 1999.

MAN WHO WORKED AS TOP 'NVERSN THERAPIST' OUT AS GAY

Game has disavowed the program’s practic sce g out publicly (though a bgraphy still listed for him on Hope for Wholens’s webse claims he had “lived as a gay man for three years” before foundg his mistry. ” Over the urse of his reer wh Hope for Wholens, Game was open about experiencg attractn to other men and wrote about his stggle wh watchg gay pornography.

FORMER NVERSN THERAPY LEAR OUT AS GAY AND APOLOGIZ TO MUNY

Earlier this year, David Mathon, a well-known former Mormon nversn therapist, said he was gay. A proment “nversn therapy” advote, David Mathon, has e out as gay after spendg what he said were s of his life entrenched homophobia.

Mathon was a practner of the practice also known as “ex-gay therapy” or reparative therapy”, which promot the false ia that beg gay is somethg that should, and n, be “cured”. “They me om my own homophobia and narrow-mdns.

CONVERSN THERAPY ANIZATN FOUNR OUT AS GAY: 'PLEASE FIVE ME'

”Mathon, a Mormon, affirmed his sexualy this week after the LGBT advocy group Tth Ws Out reported on a leaked private nversatn between Mathon and “nversn therapy” advote Rich up for the US morng briefgAfter the private nversatn was ma public, Mathon wrote a Facebook post to affirm he was gay.

'I WAS WRONG! PLEASE FIVE ME!': CONVERSN THERAPY LEAR OUT AS GAY

“What you n take om this is that my time a straight marriage and the ‘ex-gay’ world was genue and scere and a rich blsg to me, ” Mathon wrote. ’”Mathon told the Salt Lake Tribune’s podst Mormon Land that he was exposed to homophobia as a youth the Mormon church and found solace therapy he received to al wh his own same-sex attractn.

“To the men whose ternalized homophobia I llud wh or who went away om therapy feelg that really was kd of hurtful to me, I am so sorry, ” Mathon said. “I got to this bee I really had a sense of passn and love to this muny”Mathon said the Mormon church has improved s posn on LGBT issu sce the 1970s, but add that he wasn’t sure had acknowledged the strs that om beg a gay Mormon church has recent years clarified that do not nsir same-sex attractn a s, but s policy dictat that people nnot participate homosexual behavr and also participate the church. Mathon said that by the time he began studyg therapy, he had bee nsumed by the iology that beg gay is a s.

The former lear of one of the natn's largt nversn therapy mistri has e out as gay. Conversn therapy is a bunked practice aimed at "nvertg homosexuals" based on the ia that beg gay is a s that n be overe.

CONVERSN THERAPY CENTER FOUNR WHO SOUGHT TO TURN LGBTQ CHRISTIANS STRAIGHT SAYS HE’S GAY, REJECTS ‘CYCLE OF SELF SHAME’

Game, who is 51, led the South Carola fah-based anizatn for two s before beg fired by the board of directors me out as gay earlier this summer, formally cuttg ti wh the anizatn. "20yrs exgay mistry. Tellg Christians they would "go to Hell" for beg gay "was probably my worse wrongful act, " he wrote.

"I'd like all exgay mistry and nversn therapy unselors and anizatns shut down. Even though 's been s years sce the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn termed that homosexualy is not an illns that n be "cured, " hundreds of thoands of adults the U. "Most people the gay muny have treated me ridiculoly kd, " Game said, "Likg me for me now and not who I was.

CONVERSN THERAPY LEAR COM OUT AS GAY, ISSU APOLOGY

"Bee, my md, homosexualy and Christiany didn't go together, " he told The Post and Courier. He created a curriculum lled Hope for Wholens, which teach that beg gay is a "velopmental disorr. He and his wife, who have two grown children, rema married, and she knows he is gay, he said.

Still, "most people the gay muny have treated me ridiculoly kd, likg me for me now and not who I was, " he add.

‘I WAS WRONG’: CHRISTIAN NVERSN THERAPY FOUNR OUT AS GAY

"Several people who've been lears the nversn therapy movement have e out as gay, such as Michael Bsee, one of the founrs of Exod, and John Smid, former executive director of Love Actn, who was portrayed as the character Victor Syk the film Boy Erased. Alan Chambers, a former print of Exod, has nmned nversn therapy, but a 2015 memoir he cled to ll himself gay or bisexual, sayg his orientatn is toward his wife, Llie. The man who found Hope for Wholens, one of the most proment nversn therapy groups the Uned Stat, has e out as Game, the founr of the South Carola-based nversn therapy mistry Hope for Wholens, me out as gay this summer, nearly two years after beg fired om the anizatn he said an terview wh The Post and Courier published Friday that his anizatn, found nearly 20 years ago, "harmed generatns of people.

“Conversn therapy is not jt a lie, but ’s very harmful, ” Game told The Post and, now 51, is one of several former nversn therapy advot who have e out as LGBTQ and nmned the practice of nversn than a dozen stat have banned gay nversn therapy, which seeks to change a person's sexual orientatn or genr inty.