Kevin Richardson, better know by his stage name Mo Heart, won the hearts of drag fans the world over as a competitor on season ten of RuPaul’s Drag Race and season four of All-Stars, where she was a finalist. And she sent jaws dropping in 2020 when she shared her unique coming-of-age story.
While chatting with Johnny McGovern on the digital talk show Hey Qween!, Heart revealed that her mother enrolled her in conversion therapy just after she came out of the closet. The pair even relocated from New York to Missouri as part of the “treatment.”
“I moved to Kansas City in 2008,” Heart said, “and I enrolled at the International House of Prayer, where they do 24/7 prayer…I was like ‘I struggle with homosexuality,’ and they call it ‘SSA,’ Same-Sex Attraction.”
Heart spent six months in the program before going on to lead an intensive breakout group called “Living Waters.” That’s when things finally started to change.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“The last time I was leading the group,” she recalls, “my best friend Junior had broken up with his girlfriend… He was like, ‘I’m at a breaking point. I’m going out to the club. You wanna go?’ And this was like Monday night after praying the gay away. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going!'”
She added, “So sure enough, for like six months I would pray with the homos, and then me and my friend would go to the gay bar afterward.”
“It was horrible,” Heart concluded. “I mean coming out is not easy, but it was amazing to be in a room with other people who identified like you, and I had never had that experience, so it was just transformative in a way.”
Heart’s candid account of that difficult time in her life no doubt helped some struggling LGBTQ youth out there feel a little less alone. We’re proud of anyone who can overcome such overwhelming obstacles to achieve the kind of personal confidence she exudes both on and off the stage. More incredible, still, is the willingness to talk about it so freely and hopefully lessen the burden for others.
Scroll down for some pics from Heart’s Instagram page…
Welcome to Queerty’s Pride50. We’re celebrating the members from our community who are responsible for some of the most inspiring and extraordinary moments for LGBTQ people over the last year. See all the honorees
Sqwoah
I wonder if pray-the-pathological-need-for-attention-away would work for her.