Former nversn therapy lear out as gay: 'I was wrong.'

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.

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. Earlier this year, David Mathon, a well-known former Mormon nversn therapist, said he was gay.

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

”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. “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.

FORMER NVERSN THERAPY LEAR OUT AS GAY AND APOLOGIZ TO MUNY

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.

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 ANIZATN FOUNR OUT AS GAY: 'PLEASE FIVE ME'

"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.

"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.

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

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. McKrae Game, the founr of nversn therapy mistry Hope for Wholens, me out as gay June and recently took to social media to ask for fivens for his years ex-gay mistri.

In an hour-long Facebook live Tuday eveng, the former Southern Baptist mister said fively, "I'm agast ex-gay mistry and nversn mistry" and "I n see how ed harm people's liv. Answerg viewers' ments on the Facebook live about how he would repair years of workg gay nversn, Game said, "We n't change our past, we n only be the bt we n be for the prent.

" Game, 51, who was raised a Baptist home, also said that "homosexualy is the pet peeve of the church" but now he believ "God lov all equally. 31 article by The Post and Courier that outled Game's journey om his two s as lear of a South Carola fah-based mistry to his firg om November 2017 and his ultimate announcement June that he was gay. 25, he wrote on Facebook, "20yrs exgay mistry.

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

❤️" In that same post, he wrote that his time ex-gay mistry was "a large part of me" and "The memori aren’t all bad. Creatg a tchy slogan that put out a very misleadg ia of 'Freedom om homosexualy through J Christ' was fely harmful. " He's referrg to Hope for Wholens's slogan and s belief that "those who stggle wh homosexualy n fd eedom to live acrdg to God's sign, " acrdg to s webse.

But displays differ greatlyGame went on to wre that he'd like to see "all ex-gay mistry and nversn therapy unselors and anizatns shut down" addg that he believ there may be a e for those anizatns "for those that believe that homosexualy is ngent wh their fah, to receive and have a muny of like md people so that they n live healthy liv, and the end that was what I was tryg to do. He was wrong to create a slogan promotg the ia of “eedom om homosexualy through J Christ.

CONVERSN THERAPY LEAR COM OUT AS GAY, ISSU APOLOGY

” He was wrong to tell people they were doomed for all eterny if they didn’t change their 20 years workg that field, Game said he realiz the harm he has ed and that he, himself, is gay. “It’s all my past, but many, way TOO MANY ntue believg that there is somethg wrong wh themselv and wrong wh people that choose to live their liv hontly and open as gay, lbian, trans, etc., ” Game, 51, wrote on Facebook last week.

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

In 2014, ne former “ex-gay” lears signed an open letter nouncg nversn therapy as “effective and harmful” and llg for an end to . A Latter-day Sat unselor who practiced nversn therapy said January that he is gay and that he “unequivolly renounc” ex-gay announced June that he was gay, almost two years after Hope for Wholens’s board of directors fired him, the Post and Courier reported. ”In a Facebook Live vio posted Tuday, Game said he cid to tell people he was gay bee he was sred that someone would “out” him — reveal his sexual orientatn — and he wanted to ntrol his own story.