Believing that one cannot be gay and Christian at the same time, some Christians who have homosexual tendencies have tried conversion therapy to rid themselves of unwanted same-sex attraction.
Conversion therapy usually consists of talk therapy, electroshock therapy, treating LGBTQ identity as an addiction issue like drugs or alcohol, and many more. It allegedly "guarantees" to deliver results. In truth, however, conversion therapy can be a horrible experience that could push people to suicide, a 19-year-old Christian teen found out.
The teen, who chose to go by the name TC, told The Huffington Post that he managed to survive conversion therapy, but what happened to him during that ordeal continues to haunt him to this day.
TC began conversion therapy in 2012 when he was only 15 years old. His parents made him take it in the basement of a church after school hours. He said the first step that the therapists did was to "deconstruct us as a person," adding that this lasted for six months.
"Their tactics still haunt me. Aversion therapy, shock therapy, harassment and occasional physical abuse. Their goal was to get us to hate ourselves for being LGBTQ (most of us were gay, but the entire spectrum was represented), and they knew what they were doing," he shared.
"The second step of the program, they 'rebuilt us in their image.' They removed us of everything that made us a unique person, and instead made us a walking, talking, robot for Jesus. They retaught us everything we knew. How to eat, talk, walk, dress, believe, even breathe. We were no longer people at the end of the program," TC continued.
Worse, TC said he and the others who endured conversion therapy were taught to hate the LGBTQ community with a fervour.
"They were able to turn us against ourselves," he said. "This is what drew so many people to suicide. We all shared a sense of loathing towards who we were and who we loved. It wasn't just your regular 'I hate myself.' It was a disgust with the person you were and you wanted to do anything you could to change."
