February 3, 2019
Prominent Conversion Therapy Advocate Comes Out
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
One of the most public proponents of conversion therapy denounced the practice... and came out on Friday.
"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="" said="" on="" Facebook.="" "They="" came="" from="" my="" own="" homophobia="" and="" narrow-mindedness.="" I="" am="" truly="" sorry="" for="" those="" flaws="" and="" the="" harm="" they="" have="" surely="" caused="" some="" people.="" And="" I'm="" sorry="" for="" the="" confusion="" and="" pain="" my="" choice="" may="" be="" causing="" others."
Major medical organizations such as American Medical Association, American Psychological Association and the UK's National Health Service have denounced "ex-gay therapy" or "reparative therapy."
Matheson, the Guardian wrote, went public with being gay after "
Matheson, a Mormon, came out in a Facebook post, telling the public "he realized last year that he had to make a change in his life and divorced his wife of 34 years, in part because he felt he could no longer ignore his desire to have a relationship with a man.
"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," Matheson wrote on Facebook. "I remember most of it with fondness and gratitude for the joy and growth it caused in me and many others.'"
The Guardian report added that "Matheson told the Salt Lake Tribune's podcast Mormon Land that he was exposed to homophobia as a youth in the Mormon church and found solace in therapy he received to deal with his own same-sex attraction. He said the benefits of that therapy, and his desire to help men like himself, drove him to become a therapist."
Matheson also said that he never used "aversion treatments" in his practice.
And while he apologized to what harm he may have done in his practice, an earlier statement he made to Truth Wins Out never mentioned his practice or his clients' target='_blank'>
"My time in a straight marriage and in the "ex-gay" world was genuine and sincere and a rich blessing to me. 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."
