I Spent Seven Years in Gay Conversion Therapy Programs Before Breaking Free
IT began his junior year at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah: Michael Ferguson wanted desperately to rid himself of the sexual feelings he had toward men. His Mormon faith and his loving family would never understand. So he began to try to pray the gay away.
Thus began a seven-year journey through nine gay conversion therapy programs, also called reparative therapy, which included hypnotherapy, physical psychotherapy, evangelical spiritual groups, and a 12-step addiction recovery program. Such treatments were designed to “cure” homosexuality by changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have condemned such practices. President Obama supported a national ban, and some states have already passed such legislation.
But gay conversion therapy has re-entered the national spotlight after a draft of the GOP’s official 2016 platform—much farther to the right than in years past, and far more conservative than Donald Trump’s own positions—contained language that seemed to support its implementation and use. Underneath a subsection titled “Protecting Individual Conscience in Healthcare,” one line reads, “We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.”
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