When I first started learning about all this a few months ago, I literally did not believe it.

I told myself that abusive aversion therapy techniques had to be a relic of the past. They had to be illegal.

Then I started encountering LGBTQ youth who told me about experiences they’d had only recently.

I was appalled, obviously.

There are lots of efforts underway in state legislatures to ban and even criminalize conversion therapy.

I figured I could best contribute by using my fiction-writing skills to really personalize things.

I think if more people knew what goes on in these programs, and if they could honestly relate to and empathize with the kids, legislation would be easier to accomplish.

I have to say, though, that not everyone is reachable. A conservative Christian responded to one of the chapters last night with Bible verses full of condemnation of sin.

It was really ugly.

I blocked the commenter, figuring there’s no need to engage with that level of fanaticism. It does give me pause, though, to know some folks can be so lacking in empathy and human decency.

Jim