One of the leading proponents of the medically denounced practice of “gay conversion therapy” has announced that he’s gay and looking for a boyfriend.
David Matheson told the LGBTQ nonprofit Truth Wins Out late Sunday that he has “embarked on a new life-giving path that has already started a whole new growth process.”
“I continue to support the rights of individuals to choose how they will respond to their sexual attractions and identity,” he added. “With that freedom, I am now choosing to pursue life as a gay man.”
Earlier that day, Truth Wins Out released details from a post in a private Facebook group by another conversion therapist, Rich Wyler, who said Matheson had “gone from bisexuality to exclusively gay” and was “seeking a male partner.”
Matheson, a Mormon who received a Masters of Science degree in Counseling and Guidance from Brigham Young University in 1996, began a full-time gay conversion practice in New Jersey in 2004 for which he charged $240 for a 90-minute session.
According to a 2007 New York Times article, Matheson ran a full-time therapy practice in New Jersey with an active roster of about 50 clients.
So-called gay conversion therapy is a pseudo-scientific practice that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Matheson is the author of the book ‘Becoming a whole man’ and creator of several experimental programs which seek to “address incongruous same-sex attractions.”
He also co-wrote the ‘Journey Into Manhood’ program, which reinforced teachings in reparative therapy world that being gay stemmed primarily from an inability to relate to masculine activities.
Matheson claimed he enjoyed a happy and fulfilling marriage to his wife for 34 years and being ‘straight’ became a core part of my identity.
However he said he also experienced attractions to men.
Yesterday he changed his Facebook profile pic from a conservative suit-and-tie photo to a picture of himself looking buff, bald, and tan in a black tank top.
Matheson opened up further in a long Facebook post Tuesday.
“A year ago I realized I had to make substantial changes in my life,” he wrote. “I realized I couldn’t stay in my marriage any longer. And I realized that it was time for me to affirm myself as gay.”
Still, he didn’t denounce his participation in the conversion therapy movement, adding, “What you can take from this is that my time in a straight marriage and in the ‘ex-gay’ world was genuine and sincere and a rich blessing to me.”
To Chaim Levin, who said he was psychologically hurt by programs Matheson helped create, an apology is not enough.
“While I am pleased for Mr. Matheson that he has found a path forward for his life, I can’t help but think of the hundreds if not thousands of people who are still stuck in the closet, a closet that was created in part by Mr. Matheson himself,” Levin told Truth Wins Out. “I hope that Mr. Matheson will do whatever he can to rectify the harm that he’s inflicted on many people in the LGBTQ community, myself included.”
Nearly 700,000 LGBTQ adults in the U.S. have received “conversion therapy” at some point in their lives, according to the Williams Institute.
More and more states are banning the controversial practice on minors, a step that Matheson said he now supports.
Fifteen states have passed legislation prohibiting licensed mental health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on minors — including Delaware, Hawaii, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island and, most recently, New York.