A notorious conversion therapist from Utah is kicking off 2019 by rebranding himself as a proud gay man/muscle daddy.
David Matheson, who is best known for launching the B.S. “Journey into Manhood” program, which used Mormon teachings to steer gay people into repressing their true feelings, says he’s giving all that up to “pursue life as a gay man.” Not just that, but he’s looking for a boyfriend!
In a statement shared by Truth Wins Out, which advocates against conversion therapy, Matheson writes:
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.
Noticeably absent from the statement, however, are the words “I’m sorry” to the countless LGBTQ people whose lives he made a living hell with his decades of bogus therapies.
Matheson, who has been married to a woman for over 30 years, began offering counseling to men with “unwanted homosexuality” after receiving his Masters of Science degree in Counseling and Guidance from Brigham Young University in 1996.
In 2004, he opened a full-time gay conversion clinic in New Jersey, where he charged $240 for a 90-minute session. And in 2013, he self-published the book Becoming a Whole Man, a guide for dealing with “unwanted homosexuality.”
On Facebook yesterday, he posted a second statement saying “an intimate relationship with a man [is] no longer something I [want] to avoid” and that it has instead “become a non-negotiable need.”
He also 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.
In response to Matheson’s coming out, Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out says, “If conversion therapy does not work for authors like David Matheson who write books on the discredited practice, it is naive to expect it to work for those reading such deceptive publications.”
He continues, “Conversion therapy employs guilt and shame to browbeat desperate and vulnerable people into renouncing their humanity. This is the latest evidence that conversion therapy is consumer fraud and ought to be outlawed in all 50 states.”
Related: Former leader of ex-gay conversion therapy group admits it’s harmful and doesn’t work
Wicked Dickie
And there will still be gays out there that want him.
Kangol
What a creep! This horrible man is doing as much or more damage than a comedian like Kevin Hart, because not only do the parents of many questioning and uncertain LGBTQ people, as well as unsure young and older people themselves pick up books like his or suffer through “conversion”-therapy and end up that much more tormented and confused, but churches use his hateful crap to brainwash people into thinking their sexual orientations and desires are “evil,” “wrong,” changeable, etc. Also, right-wing politicians use the crap that people like this man put out there to attack homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism as “choices,” thus denying the very idea of sexual orientation and traumatizing the people who are grappling with their sexualities and sexual identities. Instead of coming out or dealing with his sexuality, he stayed married to a woman and, hiding behind this, pushed a lying ideology not he believes in. Absolutely disgusting. He ought to pay back every dime he took “counseling,” or even be charged with fraud if the laws allowed it.
GayEGO
Oh come on! It just took him longer to toss the beliefs his religion forced on him. At least he is now out of the closet! He should pay back the money, just like Trump should for his cheating business deals!
Kangol
@GayEGO, uh no, it wasn’t just his “religious beliefs” at issue. That’s his problem. It’s his conversion therapy crap that he pushed on others that’s a problem. Don’t you see that? Do you have any idea what kinds of psychic damage that hateful BS does to people? It has led to alcohol and drug abuse, years of mental torment, and suicide, when supportive, pro-gay counseling and an embracing community would have had the opposite effect. Just talk to anyone who’s suffered through conversion therapy, especially if they’re young, and you’ll see, it was no walk in the park.
Creamsicle
I actually agree that this man is much worse than anything Kevin Hart or any stupid microaggression. This man did real, deliberate, and acute harm to men who swallowed the lie that there was something wrong with them. Instead of helping them, he took advantage of their internalized homophobia and made it worse.
It might have been hard for him to come to terms with his sexuality too, but that’s like saying that being a Death Camp guard was a hard on the nazis.
Vince
Religious people are so easily duped and prey to charletons like this. You just never see this BS in Atheists. They usually want verifiable proof first. Much harder to deceive.
GayEGO
Now this is a perfect example of someone who was misguided by religion, to change and come out of the closet to be himself, a gay man. We are born who we are, the only ones who know ourselves, and no one else knows who others are. This is why religions that do not learn to change their dark ages doctrines, lose members, and fade into the past.
Invalid
So, the bottom line is that he’s still preaching that sexually is a choice and can be changed. He is the proof. “If I can switch from being straight to being gay, then you can change from being gay to being straight.”
Brian
Accrediting bodies need to get tougher. His Master from Brigham Young is not equal to my Master from Duke. Some religious schools are fake and need to be called out as such. (A biology degree from Liberty University shouldn’t exist.) Furthermore, these absurd programs are contributing to the rising cost of education, rising debt, and depressed markets for housing and other goods.
lcandela123
He says that “living a single, celibate life just isn’t feasible for him”.
Oh, really? Is it as simple as that? Just declare it as “unfeasible” for you?
Firstly, that is an appalling choice of weasel words if I ever heard any.
Secondly, I strongly doubt that a gay teenager in one of your conversion programs would have been given such an easy out option. No, it would have been intensive shaming and calls to pray, pray, pray, until the poor soul just gives in out of frustration and powerlessness.
No David, you fail the scumbag test.
toddlicious
He’s gay gay gay. Always was. No matter how blessed he was while CHOOSING the straight life. This tool is GAY! I wonder how many boys have stories about their time being converted by this asshole.
MarathonBoy
lol. He deleted most of the comments on his FB, leaving only the ones that praise him. What a loser, coward and narcissist.
It’s also worth pointing out the absurdity of Queerty writer Graham Gremore demanding an apology not to gay and bi men, but to “LGBTQ people.” Mathesson didn’t work with transgenders, so it’s not clear why he would be apologizing to them. And “queer” people believe that sexuality is fluid and mutable. “Queer” ideology aids and abets the conversion industry. So not only are “queers” not owed an apology, they owe an apology to all LGB people.
Billy Budd
This guy is more evil than Darth Vader, Hitler and Hannibal Lecter put together.
Kenover
This POS hypocrite has some amends to make to those he “treated.” He seems to have no shame whatsoever.
AVD9
he still seems in the beginning or middle of his acceptance and renouncement of his not so old past as a conversion therapist.
The more he gets into his new life, understands more facets of what he’s going through, he will then see more deeply how he’s affected others in a negative way. I’m not saying he’s done all bad, after all, I don’t know him, however, his positive thinking stance on his past life’s mission isnaive at best.
nitejonboy
He’ll get his.