A well-known conversion therapist has
come out as gay.
David Matheson, a member of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), built a career
selling therapies that attempt to alter the sexual orientation of gay
men.
According to a 2007 The New York
Times story, Matheson holds a master's in counseling and guidance
from Brigham Young University and charged $160 an hour to help men
develop “gender wholeness.” He opened his practice in New Jersey
in 2004.
“The therapy I do really just uses
standard, normal therapeutic principles. Cognitive therapy and
emotional-based therapy, standard therapeutic approaches, with an
emphasis on helping them feel more comfortable in their masculinity,”
Matheson said.
Matheson is the author of Becoming a
Whole Man, which, according to its synopsis, “is the result of
a six-year quest to understand and respond to the most difficult
challenges facing men with unwanted homosexuality.”
Truth
Wins Out, a watchdog group focused on the “ex-gay” industry,
on Sunday said that it had obtained a private Facebook post in which
Rich Wyler, director of Journey into Manhood, revealed that Matheson
is “seeking a male partner.”
“David...says that living a single,
celibate life just isn't feasible for him, so he's seeking a male
partner,” Wyler said. “He's gone from bisexuality to exclusively
gay.”
In a statement given to Truth Wins Out,
Matheson acknowledged that he had “chosen” to “pursue life as a
gay man,” but failed to apologize for the harm he had caused.
“My time in a straight marriage and
in the 'ex-gay' world was genuine and sincere and a rich blessing to
me,” Matheson said. “I remember most of it with fondness and
gratitude for the joy and growth it caused in me and many others. But
I had stopped growing and was starting to die. So I’ve embarked on
a new life-giving path that has already started a whole new growth
process. I wasn’t faking it all those years. I’m not renouncing
my past work or my LDS faith. And I’m not condemning
mixed-orientation marriages. I continue to support the rights of
individuals to choose how they will respond to their sexual
attractions and identity. With that freedom, I am now choosing to
pursue life as a gay man.”
Wayne Besen, executive director of
Truth Wins Out, responded: “If conversion therapy does not work for
authors like David Matheson who write books on the discredited
practice, it is naive to expect it to work for those reading such
deceptive publications. Conversion therapy employs guilt and shame to
browbeat desperate and vulnerable people into renouncing their
humanity. This is the latest evidence that conversion therapy is
consumer fraud and ought to be outlawed in all 50 states.”