HUFFINGTON
07.14.13
STRAIGHT TALK
I
DAMON DAHLEN
n 2007, the American Psychological Association convened a
task force to study the existing
research on conversion therapy, the latest indication that the
professional mental health community had grown increasingly
concerned about the practice.
John didn’t need to wait for the
results to be published. “It really
became just more and more and
more evident that this was a con-
troversial field, and I didn’t want
any part of the controversy,” he
said. Deeply troubled by Mathew’s
recent departure and his realization that conversion therapy
wasn’t making any of his patients
straight, he decided not to see
any more patients who wanted to
change their sexual orientation.
In the cafe, John apologized for
the “bad ending” with Mathew.
It served as a “wake-up call,”
Shurka
speaks with
patrons at the
Little Zelda
coffee shop in
Brooklyn, N.Y.