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I had gone home the summer before I went to UNCW and found the Love in Action handbook in the bottom of a drawer. Could you describe the process of building all these details from your memory? You weren’t allowed to journal, write, photograph, or document anything while in the program, but there’s so much detail and reflection throughout. This is not just about my family, it’s about a lot of families that were tricked. They didn’t just buy ex-gay therapy, they bought WMDs in Iraq, they bought everything that was being sold, and it was not necessarily their fault in some ways. At the same time that I was trying to particularize my experience, I was trying to show how these well-meaning people bought that stuff. It’s not “How could anyone do this to a child?” It’s “How could anyone do this to a child? How did this happen, and how is this related to a larger spectrum of LGBTQ experience in the United States that still exists and is not going away any time soon?” At the time that I was living that experience in 2004, it was a terrifying time in the country. Do you not know what it’s like to live in Arkansas in the church? That’s where the book is. But I also found it annoying because it was like, of course a parent could do this to a child. “How could any parent do this to a child?” I found that question nice to hear because I hadn’t thought about it in that way. That’s crazy.” I said to the group, “Well, if I write about it, you have to be honest and tell me if you hate my father.” They read it and said, “I don’t know how I feel about your father, it’s confusing.” And I thought, Yes, I can write it! That’s when I knew what the real question of the book was going to be, the question that everyone kept asking me. And they told me, “You have to write about that. I was doing a Masters in Fine Arts in fiction at UNC Wilmington, but I’d enrolled in this nonfiction class and the teacher said, “You need to write about something in your life, and it’s best if it’s really dramatic.” I started to tell everyone about the two weeks and they said, “Wait, what?” I said, “Yeah, that’s what happened,” like it was no big deal. What prompted you to start telling your story? I spoke with Conley, who lives in Sofia, Bulgaria where he teaches, via Skype before he left for the U.S. Conley’s prose is evocative and lush, allowing the reader to understand the confusion and frustration endured, not only by him, but also his mother and father who, ultimately, regrettably, thought they were doing the right thing.
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Instead, it is a nuanced, sharply written work of art. The intense scrutiny sapped Conley of his identity in what Charles Baxter called “an attempt at soul-murder.” However, Boy Erased is not an expose, not a self-help book or sentimentally sensational tell-all. Frightened and ashamed, Conley chose to attend LIA.īoy Erased, published by Riverhead Books in May, is Conley’s account of the grueling experience he endured during his time at LIA. Conley’s father gave him an ultimatum: attend a Christian “ex-gay” therapy program called Love in Action (LIA) or be disowned and cut off from his education. Life was regulated by the Bible and the watchful eye of the people, both young and old, who surrounded him. His father was a Missionary Baptist preacher, and he was raised in a small, close-knit Arkansas town. It’s a time in many people’s lives when they grow intellectually and explore their sexuality, but for Conley, it was even more complicated. When you’re in this religious environment, it complicates it even further.”Īt the age of nineteen, during his first year of college, Garrard Conley was outed to his family against his will. J“I remember in the 90s and even early 00s, the idea was still prevalent in popular culture and the media that gay sex equaled death. Garrard Conley: On Surviving Ex-Gay Therapy, Writing His Memoir, and the Year in Queer Lit