Garrard Conley's Memoir BOY ERASED - Gay Conversion Therapy is Consecrated Torture

Garrard Conley's memoir BOY ERASED published 2016 is Conley's confessions of religious torment fearing hell and brimstone was his fate.  His fear & self-loathing stemmed from his Baptist upbringing where homosexuality was proselytized as an abomination & mortal sin.   Raised by a devout Baptist minister, Conley was confused by his sexual attraction to the same sex.  His father was without any doubt homosexuality is a sin and threatened Conley to change or forever be banned from his home, his family & any financial support.  Conley for his part believed at the time he needed to change and was willing to seek "help" to purify himself so as not to be turned away by God.  Conley's memoir talks about his 2 weeks in conversion therapy in a program called "Love in Action" (LIA).  Conley's mother jokes that it was the year they were abducted by aliens.  Conley views this time as a year when his life went missing, where everything he cared about was erased.  The humiliation and coercion with which LIA operated their misguided & damaging conversion therapy was odious.  Conley submitted to LIA hoping it would be a savior from remaining a hell-bound sinner knowing he would remain as he was born.  The idea of a sin having a biological basis would have shocked most people in Conley's congregation but many were beginning to suspect the truth; this is factual. And, the perverse idea that conversion therapy is healing or possible should be erased for all eternity.    Conley acceptance of his so called affliction was not something he desired to change has become acceptable to both of his parents.  Conley's rebuff from his father has healed.  The blasphemy of intolerance, particularly based on religious grounds is what's not tolerable.  Fortunately, this abhorrent conviction of conversion therapy has floundered.  Unfortunately,  prejudice against the LGBT community persists.  Conley's memoir delves deeply into the psyche of religious zealots who maintain gays are disgusting abominations.  It sheds light on what many liberals find incredulous.   Fourteen years after Conley's immersion into LIA he's found himself lucky to be alive, and happy with his life & with his family despite how he was treated and still "handled as they would an unwanted piece of family china."  He contends we "...still share the same warm blood that pausing through my veins."  BOY ERASED is a bittersweet memoir written with candor & compassion.