"I used to be caught in an ideological prison of my own," David Matheson wrote in a public Facebook post earlier, after LGBTQ charity Truth Wins reported on a private post made by ‘conversion therapist' Rich Wyler, stating that Matheson was no longer part of the so-called gay conversion community.
"I know my work helped many, many people because they've told me so. But I'm sure I've hurt some people too. Not that I would excuse myself, but any shortcomings I had as a therapist came from too narrow a view of what ‘emotionally healthy' can look like," Matheson suggested.
The debunked views of so-called gay-conversion therapy "came from my own homophobia and narrow mindedness," the former militant anti-gay Mormon said, adding, "I am truly sorry for those flaws and the harm they have surely caused some people."
"I'm sorry for the confusion and pain my choice may be causing others," he said while offering that his divorce from his wife of 34 years happened because of what he termed his "non-negotiable" needs to have sex with people of his own gender.
"So, what can you take from my course change? Not that I was faking it all those years or that the choice I'm making now was inevitable. Not that I'm renouncing my faith or my past work-even if I wish I could go back and change some things. Not that I condemn marriages between same-sex attracted and a straight person. And not that I'm giving up or jumping ship," Matheson posted.
The pseudo-psychiatric gay conversion therapy has been denounced by several medical organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the UK's National Health Service.
A study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law released in January 2018 revealed that around 20,000 LGBT youth between the ages of 13 and 17 will be forced to undergo some kind of conversion therapy from a professional before turning 18.
According to a report by the American Psychiatric Association, the mental-health risks of engaging in reparative therapy are "great" and include "depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior."
