Former Conversn Therapist Says He's 'Choosg To Pursue Life As A Gay Man' | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• GAY PATRICIA MATHON
• ‘INTELLECTUAL GODFATHER OF EX-GAY THERAPY’ DAVID MATHON COM OUT OF THE CLOSET
• GAY PATRICIA MATHON 4LEAVE A REVIEW LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAY THERAPIST LIFE COACH PSYCHOLOGY ACCEPTG NEW PATIENTS VIS WEBSE THE MIGHTY MD 42305 WASHGTON STREET SUE 210, PALM DERT, CA, 92211 REQUT NOW (760) 479-6401VIRTUAL VIS OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE GAY PATRICIA MATHON 4 (760) 479-6401 VIRTUAL VIS REQUT NOW GAY PATRICIA MATHON
• GAY MATHON PALM DERT - LOTN, CONTACT
• A PROMENT 'GAY NVERSN THERAPIST' HAS DIVORCED HIS WIFE OF 34 YEARS AND NOW INTIFI AS GAY
• MAN WHO WORKED AS TOP 'NVERSN THERAPIST' OUT AS GAY
• ONCE-PROMENT 'NVERSN THERAPIST' WILL NOW 'PURSUE LIFE AS A GAY MAN'
• WELL-KNOWN EX-GAY THERAPIST COM OUT AS GAY, SEEKS TO DATE MEN
• PROMENT MORMON GAY NVERSN THERAPIST OUT AS GAY
• PROMENT ANTI-GAY 'NVERSN THERAPIST' REVEALED THAT HE IS, FACT, GAY
• FORMER CONVERSN THERAPIST SAYS HE'S 'CHOOSG TO PURSUE LIFE AS A GAY MAN'
• OUT OF THE DARKNS: CONVERSN THERAPIST QUS ‘EX-GAY’ MOVEMENT
• ‘I HAD TO MAKE SUBSTANTIAL CHANG’ — FORMER REPARATIVE THERAPIST OUT AS GAY, RENOUNC PAST NVERSN EFFORTS, HOP FOR SHIFTS HIS LDS FAH
• GAY PATRICIA MATHON 6LEAVE A REVIEW LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAY THERAPIST LIFE COACH PSYCHOLOGY ACCEPTG NEW PATIENTS VIS WEBSE GAY MATHON 42305 WASHGTON STREET SUE 210, PALM DERT, CA, 92211 REQUT NOW (760) 479-6401VIRTUAL VIS OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE GAY PATRICIA MATHON 6 (760) 479-6401 VIRTUAL VIS REQUT NOW GAY PATRICIA MATHON
• GAY MATHON

GAY PATRICIA MATHON

David Mathon, formerly a proment Mormon gay "nversn therapist, " has divorced his wife of 34 years and e out as a gay man. David Mathon has been known as the “tellectual godfather” of “ex-gay therapy” — a psdo-scientific nversn practice that nearly 700, 000 LGBTQ adults the Uned Stat have eher willgly or forcibly unrgone as a path to attempt to bee heterosexual.

As for David Mathon, the former gay nversn therapist, now publicly livg as a gay sgle man, he’s ma clear that he’s aware of his mistak — but that “ternalized homophobia” isn’t as easy to remove as others might thk and even claimed that some of the nversn ssns likely helped a few participants.

‘INTELLECTUAL GODFATHER OF EX-GAY THERAPY’ DAVID MATHON COM OUT OF THE CLOSET

’s Channel 4 News, however, the former “gay nversn” lear remaed oddly opaque about his stance on the practic ntug whout him. Of urse, the retreat — which ntu, whout Mathon — nied this, and claimed they nstct pals therapi that help people procs their homosexual feelgs.

“I’ll learn that someone’s gay and I’ll have this thought, this kd of homophobic thought and I’m like, ‘Dave that’s you, too.

GAY PATRICIA MATHON 4LEAVE A REVIEW LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAY THERAPIST LIFE COACH PSYCHOLOGY ACCEPTG NEW PATIENTS VIS WEBSE THE MIGHTY MD 42305 WASHGTON STREET SUE 210, PALM DERT, CA, 92211 REQUT NOW (760) 479-6401VIRTUAL VIS OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE GAY PATRICIA MATHON 4 (760) 479-6401 VIRTUAL VIS REQUT NOW GAY PATRICIA MATHON

’ So, homophobia, when ’s you — ternalized homophobia — that’s a really real thg and a really tough thg to work through. On the other hand, he’s unable to pletely renounce his volvement, even as his own practic uldn’t keep him om acceptg his own homosexualy. David Mathon began the work he now semi-renounced as a protege of Joseph Nilosi, who found the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH).

“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, ” he told The Guardian.

Gay Patricia Mathon Licensed Marriage and Fay Therapist Life Coach Psychology The Mighty Md 42305 Washgton Street Sue 210, Palm Dert, CA, 92211 Gay Patricia Mathon Gay Patricia Mathon FEATURED REVIEW"Therapy wh Gay has helped me tremendoly through life transns, alg wh prsn, anxiety, and more. 0 Schlg flexibily The Mighty Md 42305 Washgton Street Sue 210 Palm Dert, CA, 92211 "Therapy wh Gay has helped me tremendoly through life transns, alg wh prsn, anxiety, and more. I’m so glad I found Gay as my therapist, bee not only do she challenge me and have life experience, but she is mted to helpg me reach self actualizatn.

GAY MATHON PALM DERT - LOTN, CONTACT

A Utah-based Mormon who beme a proment advote of the wily discreded gay "nversn therapy" says he now intifi as Mathon, the creator of urs seekg to change a person's sexualy, revealed he uld no longer stay his marriage of 34 years and said was "time for me to affirm myself as gay. Read more: The thor of 'Boy Erased' reveals what gay nversn therapy is really like — and how he survived In an terview wh NBC News, Mr Mathon acknowledged the hurt he may have ed through the practice. "Tth Ws Out founr Wayne Ben said many people the "nversn therapy" or "ex-gay" movement looked to Mr Mathon as an "tellectual godfather.

"He created the Journey Into Manhood programme, was a director at the Centre for Genr Wholens, and the thor of a book entled Beg a Whole Lev, a platiff a succsful lawsu that led to the shuttg down of Jews Offerg New Alternativ to Homosexualy (JONAH), said he hoped Mr Mathon would "do whatever he n to rectify the harm that he’s flicted" on people the LGBTQ muny. “the Intellectual Godfather of Conversn Therapy”, spent 20+ years and ma thoands and thoands (and thoands) of dollars tryg to steer gay people to reprsg their te feelgs. Now, a new terview wh Channel 4 News, 57-year-old Mathon says flat out that gay nversn therapy has “a great potential for harmg people” and “should be stopped.

Mathon, who was married to a woman for over 30 years, first began offerg unselg to men wh “unwanted homosexualy” after receivg his Masters of Science gree Counselg and Guidance om Brigham Young Universy 1996.

A PROMENT 'GAY NVERSN THERAPIST' HAS DIVORCED HIS WIFE OF 34 YEARS AND NOW INTIFI 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.

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

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”. ”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.

ONCE-PROMENT 'NVERSN THERAPIST' WILL NOW 'PURSUE LIFE AS A GAY MAN'

“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. David Mathon, a once proment Mormon “nversn therapist” who claims to have helped some gay men rema heterosexual marriag, is lookg for a revelatn broke Sunday night after the LGBTQ nonprof Tth Ws Out obtaed a private Facebook post ma by “nversn therapy” advote Rich Wyler, which stated that Mathon “says that livg a sgle, celibate life ‘jt isn’t feasible for him, ’ so he’s seekg a male partner.

Mathon, who was married to a woman for 34 years and is now divorced, also nfirmed an terview wh NBC News that he is now datg gay nversn therapy, which is sometim referred to as “ex-gay therapy” or “reparative therapy, ” is a psdoscientific practice that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientatn or genr inty. ” Instead, he blamed what he referred to as the “shame-based, homophobic-based system” of the Mormon church which he was raised. ”Mathon was an early protege of Joseph Nilosi, who found the notor Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH).

His 2013 book, “Beg a Whole Man, ” chronicl his “six-year qut” to rid himself of “unwanted” homosexualy, acrdg to the book’s a statement Mathon emailed to Tth Ws Out on Sunday, he refed to renounce his past work or nmn what he lled “mixed-orientatn marriag. ”Mathon is far om the only ‘ex-gay therapist’ who has eher e out as gay or been exposed for livg a double 2000, “nversn therapy” advote and “succs story” John Plk was photographed at a Washgton D. And jt two months ago, Tth Ws Out exposed “ex-gay therapist” Norman Goldwasser after allegedly disvered him solicg men on gay datg said “nversn therapy” programs give people false hope that they n be “cured” of beg LGBTQ.

WELL-KNOWN EX-GAY THERAPIST COM OUT AS GAY, SEEKS TO DATE MEN

TWO is a thk tank and advocy anizatn that works agast right-wg extremism and anti-LGBT prejudice and has also spent years trackg the ex-gay movement.

“Conversn” or “ex-gay” therapy is the harmful and psdoscientific practice of attemptg to make homosexual or bisexual people heterosexual and to keep trans people om affirmg the genr wh which they intify. Acrdg to TWO, Mathon's fellow ex-gay lear Rich Wyler announced his ex a post to a private Facebook group that TWO acquired. “What you n take om this, ” Mathon ntued, “is that my time a straight marriage and the ‘ex-gay’ world was genue and scere and a rich blsg to me.

PROMENT MORMON GAY NVERSN THERAPIST OUT AS GAY

Branch shut down 2013); John Plk, the poster-child for ex-gay group Love Won Out; John Smid, former director of ex-gay group Love In Actn and Tim Rymel, former outreach director at Love In Actn.

Mathon began his profsnal trag  ex-gay therapy the early 1990s when he worked Utah wh ex-gay Mormon anizatn Evergreen Internatnal. He holds a master’s gree unselg and guidance om Brigham Young Universy, and traed unr the late Joseph Nilosi, a proment ex-gay therapist who spent his life phg nversn therapy. Nilosi, who believed that male homosexualy was a velopmental disorr ed by childhood trma and “genr nfn, ” was a founr and past print of the Natnal Associatn of the Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), perhaps the bt-known secular anizatn phg nversn therapy the U.

PROMENT ANTI-GAY 'NVERSN THERAPIST' REVEALED THAT HE IS, FACT, GAY

Now the NARTH Instute, ’s embedd wh the ex-gay anizatn Alliance for Theraptic Choice and Scientific Integry, which lnched about the same time as the NARTH rebrand. One of the unrlyg premis of ex-gay therapy is that LGBT people need to act acrdance wh a strict genr bary, which will help them be heterosexual. Mathon’s webse lled “Genr Wholens, ” which was supposed to help members of the LDS fah stgglg wh beg gay or bisexual, lnched 2013.

Mathon’s 2013 book, Beg a Whole Man, purports to help men stgglg wh homosexualy to “reach their mascule potential” and to “enjoy muny wh other men. Shut down 2013 and soon after that, an SPLC-brought lawsu agast ex-gay group JONAH (Jews Organizg for New Alternativ to Homosexualy; later Jews Organizg for New Alternativ to Healg) shut down 2015 after a jury led that the group’s practic amounted to nsumer d.

Anti-LGBT and ex-gay groups have also begun g “relig liberty” and “ee speech” arguments to promote and fend nversn therapy and, 2018, started llg bans “mt stay gay” bills, rebrandg the practice as “dividual choice” while negatg the practice’s harmful history. He told terviewer Mnie Stephenson that he looked back on his participatn the ex-gay movement as “horrifyg” and add that the psdoscientific treatment “creat a lot of sorrow. Perpetuatg the ia that beg gay is a pathology, a disorr, perpetuatg the ia that God is not okay wh people beg gay.

FORMER CONVERSN THERAPIST SAYS HE'S 'CHOOSG TO PURSUE LIFE AS A GAY MAN'

Mathon told Stephenson, "Any therapy that is based on the ia that beg gay is a psychologil disorr, which 's not, that believ that beg gay is wrong or bad, which 's not, and that n be changed and ought to be changed – any therapy based on that ia has a great potential of harmg people.

OUT OF THE DARKNS: CONVERSN THERAPIST QUS ‘EX-GAY’ MOVEMENT

Long after that classifitn was removed, relig lears have enuraged believers to seek nversn therapy, as if to say that homosexualy is some kd of choice. For much of his reer, Mathon believed that homosexualy was a psychologil disorr — somethg to be cured wh one-on-one therapy ssns, special retreats, and explorg ways to make one’s male genr more “whole. Today, Mathon’s still a practicg therapist, but he says he stopped the “genr wholens” thg six years ago, around the time he realized nversn therapy didn’t actually work and homosexualy was never a disorr.

From the moment he me out to the world to the moment he walked to the Utah Pri Ftival as a gay man, jt four and a half months had passed. “It’s kd of like any other ftival, but wh a gay theme, ” he says, spottg his dghter, Katie Mathon, handg out rmatn for Alliance for a Better Utah — a progrsive polil-actn group where she works as munitns director. His clients were often relig men who felt nflicted between beg gay or remag a member of a church that was agast beg gay.

He studied unr Joseph Nilosi California, who was a proment secular nversn therapist om the now-funct Natnal Associatn for the Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy. He met a sweet man named Douglas Freeman, who sells eyeglass for a livg and lov talkg about astrology and tarot and his four dghters: the product of the three Mormon marriag he tried to make work before g out as gay. In 2015, unveiled new polici s member handbook tailg that gays were “apostat” and children of same-sex unns uld not be baptized until they were 18 years old.

‘I HAD TO MAKE SUBSTANTIAL CHANG’ — FORMER REPARATIVE THERAPIST OUT AS GAY, RENOUNC PAST NVERSN EFFORTS, HOP FOR SHIFTS HIS LDS FAH

In a church that rejects same-sex marriag, that often exmunit men who are gay, Mathon’s experience was the oppose. In Salt Lake Cy, some gay-affirmg therapists, who are themselv gay, have taken him unr their wg, sympathetic to how risky of a leap Mathon took by g out. Buie says quickly beme apparent to him that Mathon didn’t unrstand a world where beg gay didn’t mean feelg shame.

“I’m a morally and culturally nservative, polilly progrsive liberal, active churchgog ex-Mormon, openly gay ex-nversn therapist.

A proment gay nversn therapist the Mormon church, who intified for s as “ex-gay, ” announced on Monday that his 30-year marriage to a woman has e to an end, and that he is pursug life as a gay man Mathon ma the announcement on his Facebook acunt after a prev announcement on his behalf by his lleague Rich Wyler — founr of Brothers on a Road Ls Traveled (formerly People Can Change) — was publicized by Tth Ws Out (TWO), an LGBTQ advocy group that nounc antigay anizatns.

GAY PATRICIA MATHON 6LEAVE A REVIEW LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAY THERAPIST LIFE COACH PSYCHOLOGY ACCEPTG NEW PATIENTS VIS WEBSE GAY MATHON 42305 WASHGTON STREET SUE 210, PALM DERT, CA, 92211 REQUT NOW (760) 479-6401VIRTUAL VIS OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE OVERVIEW RATINGS & REVIEWS LOCATIONS INSURANCE GAY PATRICIA MATHON 6 (760) 479-6401 VIRTUAL VIS REQUT NOW GAY PATRICIA MATHON

In a Facebook post, Mathon — who, along wh Wyler, found Journey Into Manhood, a gay nversn retreat — explaed his cisn, while ntug to support the ex-gay movement. ”Mathon — who also thored Beg a Whole Man, about “unwanted homosexualy” — scribed his marriage “happy and fulfillg” and said that “beg ‘straight’ had bee a re part of my inty, ” even though he remaed attracted to men. ” He scribed stgglg wh the cisn to end his marriage, which was challengg prcipl that had bee a re part of his fah the Mormon church — “most notably that same-sex partnerships are sful, ” he even addrsed the irony of his path, given his promence as a gay nversn therapist, and offered an explanatn.

” He said that any shortgs he had as a therapist “me om my own homophobia and narrow mdns, ” and that he is “tly sorry for those flaws and the harm they have surely ed some people. ”In his post, Mathon did not cricize gay nversn therapy, even though he is now choosg to live as a gay man — and that’s where his crics take issue. Until he renounc his “ex-gay” work and tak cred for the liv he’s ed om promotg “gay cute therapy” he should NEVER be accepted by our muny #ByeBch ?‍♂️ — Gay Oracle (@SimonSFrankl) January 22, 2019LGBTQ publitn Pri wrote, “The dissonance between realizg pretendg you’re not gay is killg you but not unrstandg that havg voted your life to tellg other men to do the same was harmful is astoundg.

GAY MATHON

”At least one member of the LGBTQ muny is acceptg Mathon’s apology — but he’s also urgg the ex-ex-gay lear to make amends. ”Mathon had once told ABC’s Nightle that his work wh Journey Into Manhood retreats was to help men for whom beg gay was simply not an optn.

”In light of what he lls his “urse change, ” Mathon sists he was “not fakg ” all those years he was a straight marriage and advotg for the ex-gay movement — and he said that he’s not abandong his fah. “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, ” he wrote.

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