Conversion therapy ringleader “comes out” as gay, apologizes

A person is a member of the LGBTQ community. Said person starts a conversion therapy program. Said person eventually comes out as a member of the LGBTQ community after inflicting immense harm on thousands of LGBTQ people who participated willingly or unwillingly in conversion therapy. Here, the case is no different.

“The founder of one of the nation’s largest conversion therapy programs, who spent decades leading the organization, now says he is gay, apologizing for his role in the practice,” reported (https://bit.ly/2lZkr4U) The Hill.

McKrae Game founded Hope for Wholeness in South Carolina. Game was fired by the organization and came out publicly in June. Recently he released a letter on social media apologizing for his part in destroying lives through conversion therapy. “I certainly regret where I caused harm,” he wrote on his Facebook (https://bit.ly/2lz2cmz) account. “Promoting the triadic model that blamed parents and conversion or prayer therapy, that made many people believe that their [sexual] orientation was wrong, bad, sinful, evil, and worse that they could change was absolutely harmful." Yet, the damage is done. Although he has come to this realization now, his inability to accept himself lead him to destroy the lives of many people in the process. Countless LGBTQ people have attempted suicide in large part to lack of acceptance from society and the gender “norms” imposed by the culture in which we live. “So-called ‘conversion therapy,’ sometimes known as ‘reparative therapy,’ is a range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression,” according to the Human Rights Campaign website.

“Such practices have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades, but due to continuing discrimination and societal bias against LGBTQ people, some practitioners continue to conduct conversion therapy. Minors are especially vulnerable, and conversion therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide.” And, religion is at the center of it all. I’ve heard right wing religious fundamentalists argue endlessly that members in the LGBTQ community have higher incidents of drug and alcohol abuse and commit suicide at higher rates because they are LGBTQ and it goes against God so their suffering is a result of that sexual orientation or gender identity.

In reality, the suffering that the LGBTQ community faces is at the hands of those same prejudicial fundamentalists that cannot love, accept and celebrate who people are—because they are LGBTQ. That is what leads to the despair, which is what leads to hopelessness and isolation. The judgment of so-called Christianity, the same kind of Christianity that was used to justify slavery, abuse against women and girls, and so on—that is the problem. It is the messages derived from the pulpits that overflow into families, friends and personal circles where so many in the LGBTQ community see their value dwindle and develop a sense a worthlessness or where they learn that something is gravely wrong with their natural disposition of being who they are, who we all are and were meant to be. What these judges fail to miss time and time again is that they are the ones going against what God calls us all to do—to love and accept. Love doesn’t come with parameters. Love comes with seeing people for who they are and celebrating their very identity, the very person they were destined to be, the very image that God created. Being discarded by others, especially others that you’re closest to and not respected or accepted as your authentic self is what causes disproportionate degrees of self-destructive behavior. That cyclical religiously derived behavior is also what causes internalized homophobia as we’ve seen with McKrae Game. His own internalized homophobia unleashed itself in the most despicable way because of the harm he inflicted on others.