“Praying the gay away nearly killed me”: call to end conversion ‘therapy’
An Australian man has launched a petition calling on the government to outlaw anti-gay conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy survivor Chris said the process was tremendously damaging to his mental health, and others have been similarly affected.
“Trying to ‘pray the gay away’ nearly killed me. I’m not the only one,” he wrote in the petition.
“So-called conversion therapy can cause depression, self-loathing and even suicide. I prayed to God asking him to either heal me, or kill me.
“I was so depressed, I wanted to die.”
Gay conversion or ‘ex-gay’ therapy can range from counselling to exorcism to coerced sex.
It has been condemned by numerous bodies including the United Nations, the Australian Psychological Society and the Australian Medical Association.
Chris was sent to a religious gay conversion therapy program by his church when he was aged 17.
He said he had been ashamed of his sexuality from an early age.
“I was still vulnerable and desperate enough to join the program, hoping it would be my cure and help me to be a better Christian,” he wrote.
“It took years of healing after leaving the program to be proudly gay. But those years still affect me somewhat… how could they not?
Chris is now calling for the kind of anti-gay program he went through to be condemned and banned by the federal government.
“I don’t want to see a single kid harmed by ‘therapies’ telling them that something that is innate in them is evil or demonic or needs to be ‘healed’,” he wrote.
The petition has so far gathered nearly 1,500 signatures, and will be sent to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Health Greg Hunt.
Victoria last year announced that the new Health Complaints Commissioner would investigate and ban anyone attempting to practice gay conversion therapy in the state.
Dave,
The mere fact that nearly 70% of Australians that were eligible to vote in the recent postal ballot on Same-sex marriage or in LGBTI terminology “marriage equality” doesn’t mean that it was right in God’s eyes or it was God’s will at all.
It simply means that God’s laws are still valid and He is a gentleman, who does not force people to follow his Law or abide by the laws as laid down in the Bible, he allows men and women to do whatever they like in this life and just like all professing Christians we will all come before His judgement throne and we will all have to give account for our actions while in this life. The only difference is that Christians are promised eternal life with Him in heaven when Jesus returns to this earth just as he promised before He ascended into heaven just over 2,000 years ago.
FFS. I’m not religious but surely it’s time for the churches to just admit that perhaps their God wants marriage equality, wants rights for the intersex and trans folks s/he created, maybe just wants love in our communities like the bible actually suggests.
In Ireland and now Australia majority Christian populations have voted by secret ballot on gay marriage. If God exists and as alleged hates gay marriage, surely that’s the obvious opportunity for a “miracle”. Perhaps there was a miracle? What if everybody listened to the Catholic Church, voted No, then God changed the votes in the envelopes? How do we know that didn’t happen? Whatever happened, we know gay marriage was strongly supported. That sort of thing doesn’t happen against God’s will, obviously. Let any so-called Christian tell me otherwise.
I say pray away the homophobe…!