Perspective from victim

Hi, my name is Jeffrey Smith. When I was 19, I was subjected to a conversion therapy in order to “cure” my homosexuality. Homosexuality is not an illness, obviously. However,  I was born into a Baptist family and my dad believed that homosexuality is a sin and a sickness. That’s why when my homosexuality was revealed to him, he immediately called the conversion therapy and made a reservation for me. During the conversion therapy, they told me that we were broken and had to be fixed. Also, they told us that someone in our family made us gay. I could say that what happened in a conversion therapy was aimed to get us to hate ourselves as a gay and it was totally human rights violations. More and more I attended sessions, I became more and more suspicious about what I was doing during the therapy. They also told us not to tell anyone what we were doing during the therapy. One day, I met one guy and we became friends. He told me that he had pretended to be cured and pretended to become homophobic in order to get out of the therapy as soon as possible. Therefore, I tried to pretend to be cured. However, it was much more harder than I had expected. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore and run out of the facility. I think I was so lucky because even though my dad couldn’t accept my sexuality at first, my mom accepted me and support me. Now, I could definitely say that it was a right decision to get out of the conversion therapy at that time. 

We were born perfect and nobody has to be judged by their sexuality. The therapists of conversion therapy don’t have any professional licenses and there are no scientific evidence that we can change our sexuality. So, I strongly disagree with the ideas of conversion therapy.






Works Cited 

Statement. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://conversiontherapysurvivors.org/survivors-statement

Nichols, J. M., & Nichols, J. M. (2016, November 18). A Survivor Of Gay Conversion Therapy Shares His Chilling Story. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/realities-of-conversion-therapy_n_582b6cf2e4b01d8a014aea66

ABOUT THE MOVIE |. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.boy-erased.jp/aboutthemovie.html


Written by Mizuki