We Can’t Stop Conversion Therapy. But We Have to Try. The Supreme Court is faced with a referendum on this horrific practice. I spoke to survivors to understand what’s at stake.
Garrard Conley is the author of the 2016 memoir, Boy Erased, which is based on his experiences in conversion therapy. (Photo by Kendrick Brinson)
Garrard Conley gets a lot of emails from people who don’t want their kids to be gay. Sitting in his kitchen in Atlanta, the 40-year-old professor tells me about a recent one, from a father who’d sent his son to a wilderness camp that promised to make him straight—and was devastated that his son had tried to kill himself shortly after getting home. This article is featured in Culture and Ideas. Sign up here to get an update every time a new piece is published. “I don’t agree with the LGBT agenda,” the father wrote. “But I think conversion therapy might be evil. Would you like to talk with me about it and see what I should do with my son?” After describing the contents of the email, which he’d received a couple days earlier, Conley told me he hadn’t responded to it yet. “I have to have the mental energy to talk to this guy who clearly hates gay people but doesn’t want his son dead,” he said. “It gets heavy.”...
Become a paid subscriber Get access to our comments section, special columns like TGIF and Things Worth Remembering, tickets in advance to our live events, and more. UPGRADE TODAY |
