Quite a few men already preceded him. Last year, conversion therapist Norman Goldwasser from Florida made headlines due to his attempt at meeting men online with the username ‘Hotnhairy72’. This year, Mormon conversion therapist David Matheson came out. We now can add Game to this list. In his Facebook post, he did not only came out as a gay man, but he also wrote that he wants to write a book about the damaging consequences of conversion therapy.
Samuel Brinton, a conversion therapy survivor, told NBC News not to be very surprised by Game’s coming out. “As I track hundreds of these conversion therapists, I am just waiting for them to come back out and recognize just how much damage they’ve done.” Adding that the conversion therapy are fraudulent: “not only is it harming youth, it is stealing money from well-meaning parents who want to save their children’s lives but in reality are actually just hurting them.”
The Trevor Project, the organisation Brinton is involved with, aims to criminalize the practice of conversion therapy in the United States. In one of their reports, the Trevor Project writes that five percent of the American LGBT+ youth is getting or has gotten such therapy. According to the report, these youngsters are twice as likely to attempt suicide than the ones who did not undergo conversion therapy.
This type of therapy is already illegal in 18 states. In the UK and Ireland however, this type of therapy is not yet illegal.