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| McKrae Game “I was a religious zealot that hurt people. Why would I want that to continue?” |
McKrae Game was a leading exponent of the 'gay cure' or 'conversion therapy' that feeds off the guilt Christianity inflicts on homosexuals. He founded Truth Ministries, later rebranded as Hope for Wholeness, a faith-based conversion therapy program in South Carolina.
But now he has had his own conversion - to honesty. He has come out as gay and is campaigning to undo some of the harm he and his fellow 'gay cure' parasites did to people.
For two decades he preached that homosexuality would send gays to Hell and that they could be saved by his Conversion Therapy course. As stark an example of how Christianity, In Hitch's words, declares you ill and commands you to be well - and sells you the 'cure' - as you could wish for.
Game was abruptly fired by the Hope for Wholeness board of directors in November 2017 and came out as gay last June. He has now joined forces with the many other founders and leaders of some of America's most prominent 'gay conversion' programs and ministries who have renounced the programs as harmful, and have called for them to be banned.
According to this report in The Post and Courier, in 2014, nine former leaders of these parasitic organizations wrote an open letter calling for a ban on this practice. They wrote:
As former ex-gay leaders, having witnessed the incredible harm done to those who attempted to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, we join together in calling for a ban on conversion therapy. It is our firm belief that it is much more productive to support, counsel, and mentor LGBTQ individuals to embrace who they are in order to live happy, well-adjusted lives.
Now Game is trying to come to terms with his new life and to the harm he inflicted on others, and to embrace the community whom he once reviled, assailed and condemned to Hell, for most of his adult life.
According to The Post and Courier:
Nearly 700,000 LGBTQ-identifying adults have undergone conversion therapy treatments or counseling, according to a 2018 study by UCLA’s Williams Institute. The various forms of conversion have been tied to emotional and psychological trauma for many, including depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide. It’s been condemned by virtually every major medical group in the United States, including the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association.
Last year, the LGBTQ youth advocacy nonprofit Trevor Project launched “50 Bills in 50 States,” a campaign lobbying for legislation in every state barring conversion therapy on youth.
Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have laws on the books banning the practices on anyone younger than 18. South Carolina is not one of them.
In the UK, all major counselling and psychotherapy bodies, as well as the NHS, have concluded that conversion therapy is dangerous and have condemned it by signing a Memorandum of Understanding(PDF).
McKrae Game's story is a harrowing one. He was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, of Baptist parents. As a child he already had gender-identity issues, finding himself attracted to his sisters' clothes and trying them on in secret. He suffered from homophobic bullying in school and from emotional anguish over what he saw as an irreconcilable conflict between his homosexual desires and his Christian beliefs, convinced that he was going to Hell for feelings he couldn't avoid having.
Despite his homosexuality, he met and married his wife through the church. He has been open about his sexual orientation with his wife, telling her at the time that he was receiving counselling to help overcome it. He had weekly counselling sessions for six years. Founding the Truth Ministry was part of his attempt to repressess his homosexual tendencies.
Games real conversion - to an honest acceptance not only of his sexual identity but also the the harm he had done to others, came about when he was invited to a counselling session by one of his former Hope for Wholeness victims. This man was receiving counselling not for being gay but to help undo the damage Game's 'therapy' had caused. Game realised at that moment that he needed to take ownership of the harm he had done to others. In his words:
I was a religious zealot that hurt people. People said they attempted suicide over me and the things I said to them. People, I know, are in therapy because of me. Why would I want that to continue?
One thing that has struck Game is how his conversion has been received by people. In contrast to the hate messages he gets from fundamentalist Christians, the gay community has shown him nothing but kindness and understanding, despite the harm he did to them as a religious bigot.
Should we really be surprised by this? Isn't it obvious now that religion provides excuses for people who need excuses, and the people who need excuses are those who need to hate others. Tweet
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