Kentucky Man's Wrenching Op-Ed Describes 'Conversion Therapy' Horrors

A 26-year-old Kentucky man has described in an op-ed the horrors he endured a decade ago when, at the age of 16, he was forced to undergo so-called "conversion therapy."

Curtis Galloway, in an op-ed published by the River City News, recalled entering a spiral of depression and isolation, losing trust in the parents he'd once been close to, and even, despite his status as a minor, being advised as to how to masturbate.

Galloway wrote, the traumatic experience "centered around my sexuality and left me with permanent mental and emotional scars."

The ordeal began when Galloway "finally came to terms with my sexuality" at age 16, but acknowledging he was gay meant that he "was to go through the most traumatic experience in my life."

Galloway explained that the "therapy" was "an attempt to indoctrinate [the idea] that homosexuality is some kind of a choice."

Galloway recounted how "the counselor instructed me to end time with 'gay-affirming friends,' or in other words, anyone who loved and supported me despite being a gay man," a directive that caused Galloway to pull away from his social circle out of fear that he would be taken out of school, "which was my only safe haven."

"Conversion therapy isolated me from anyone I could talk to about how I felt," Galloway went on to say, and, as the therapy was making no difference in his sexuality and the counselor was telling Galloway's parents that the teen "didn't try hard enough," the friction within his once-close knit family escalated.

"I felt like I cornered with little chance of escape," Galloway wrote. "I gradually shut down and withdrew deep into myself."

Galloway bravely disclosed the depths of horror and humiliation to which the so-called "therapy" sank. "My counselor went as far as to instruct me to masturbate to images of women to rewire my brain, citing Pavlov's Dogs," he wrote. "I was appalled as we had not ever discussed masturbation, and I was horrified that he might discuss this instruction with my parents."

Luckily, the day finally came when his parents, "after seeing no improvement and seeing how severely depressed I had become," pulled the plug. Today, Galloway writes, he's a happy gay man whose "parents now accept and love me unconditionally."

The young man has gone on to found the Conversion Therapy Dropout Network, whose "mission is to bridge the gap between survivors of conversion therapy and provide a support network to those harmed by the practice."

Not every "conversion therapy" story has such a happy ending, and Galloway's experience is not atypical. His op-ed was "in reference to" proposed state legislation, the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, which has bipartisan support and would ban the infliction of "conversion therapy" on minors, as some twenty states in the U.S. have already done.

Some former proponents of the practice have come out in recent years to affirm the damage "conversion therapy" can do and to apologize for their role in promoting it.