Avalon Singer Michael Passons Says Bandmates Forced Him Out for Being Gay

Singer Michael Passons left the Christian band Avalon in 2003, but he's only now revealed what he says was the truth behind his having "gone solo": The other members of the group forced him out for being gay.

Passons made the claim in a September 10 on the podcast Jonah and the Whale, telling host Josh Skinner that fellow members of the band "showed up at my house and told me I was no longer in the group," music publication Billboard reports.

"And it was all because of who I am," Passons went on to say. In 2003, "There was no way to fight for it. Back then, gay people could be discriminated against in the workplace. There were no laws against it in the secular workplace," let alone in "a faith-based organization," he recalled.

The singer acknowledged that the interview was the first public disclosure he's made about how events around his departure unfolded, and discussed how the experience of being forced out his band after he was required to attend "reparative therapy" sessions left him with what he called "a lot of PTSD," reports ET Canada.

So-called "therapies" purporting to "cure" LGBTQ people have been decried by mental health experts who say they are completely ineffectual and can harm vulnerable people. Survivors of such "therapies" voice similar observations and share sometimes-harrowing stories of abuses they endured, all to no avail.

Passons detailed his own experience, saying, "It was basically someone sitting there listening to me speak and looking like they felt really sorry for me."

His response at the time, he said, was: " 'Is this all there is? Do you have an answer? Do you have a cure?...' I knew, of course, they didn't, but I was trying to play along."

Though it was a tough experience at the time, Passons went on to say it was for the best, reports People magazine.

"At the time I was conflicted because I was involved in a culture where that was not accepted. I knew if I were honest, I would lose my career, I would lose many things – and I did end up losing all those things I feared I would."

But now, the singer said, "I'm a gay man and I'm glad to be."