Conversion therapy doesn’t simply try to change a person's behaviors; it can reshape the way we see ourselves, our faith, and even God. Drawing from his own experience, Dr. Neal reflects on the shame, fear, and self-erasure conversion therapy can produce—and on the grace that finally taught him he was never the problem that needed to be fixed.

Conversion therapy is any practice, counseling, ministry, program, or spiritual intervention that begins with the assumption that being LGBTQ is wrong, broken, sinful, disordered, evil, demonic, or unacceptable, and then seeks to change, suppress, “heal,” or “deliver” someone from their sexual orientation or gender identity.