Conversion therapy crusader has something to say: He's gay

“Conversion therapy is not just a lie, but it’s very harmful,” said McKrae Game, a South Carolinian who founded one of the nation's biggest ex-gay ministries.

Associated Press/September 3, 2019

Spartanburg, South Carolina -- A South Carolina man who founded one of the nation's biggest conversion therapy ministries has something to say: he's gay.

The Post and Courier reports Hope for Wholeness founder McKrae Game came out of the closet this summer, nearly two years after he was fired from the faith-based conversion therapy program. He's now trying to come to terms with the harm he inflicted when he was advocating for religious efforts to change a person's sexuality.

“Conversion therapy is not just a lie, but it’s very harmful,” Game told The Post and Courier. “Because it’s false advertising.”

The 51-year-old also is trying to find his place in a community he's assailed for at least 20 years. Game is one of several former movement leaders who have left the pulpits of heterosexuality, come out as LGBTQ and condemned conversion therapy as a dangerous and misleading practice.

Currently, 18 states and Washington, D.C., ban the practice of conversion therapy for minors, according to Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. South Carolina, however, is not one of these states.