By Deb Cuny As Told To Alexa Tsoulis Reay
Conversion therapy, also known as “reparative” or “ex gay” therapy, refers to the practice of “curing” LGBTQ identities. While the method varies from prayer to talk therapy, it usually involves violence and humiliation. Though the practice has been discredited by the nation’s leading mental-health organizations, it’s still legal in 41 states and an estimated 20,000 LGBTQ youth ages 13 to 17 will undergo conversion therapy with a licensed health-care professional before the age of 18, according to a new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. The Cut spoke with Deb Cuny, a 37-year-old education worker, about the conversion therapy she endured when she was a sophomore in college.
I grew up in a town of about 7,000 people. My dad’s family is Catholic and Mom is a fundamentalist Christian. She would always say there are Christians and there are Christians. Our family was the latter: It was common for Mom to excuse herself and go speak in tongues, we believed in the rapture, my sister and I would physically pin classmates up against the wall demanding they give their lives to Christ. I was taught that homosexuality was a sin. If you were gay, you’d go to hell, simple.
Being a proper woman went hand in hand with being a proper Christian. But I was different. Even as a baby I passed as…
