#LGBTQ: Conversion Therapy Founder Finally Comes Out as Gay “I Was a Hot Mess for 26 Years…”

McKrae Game who founded one of the largest conversion therapy programs in the country has come out as gay.

Back in ’99, Game, started Truth Ministry, a faith-based conversion therapy program in South Carolina, which aims to suppress or completely change a person’s sexuality through counseling, interventions, or ministry. The organization was eventually rebranded and renamed as Hope for Wholeness in 2013.

Game, who vehemently preached that being gay would send someone to hell, has now come out as a gay man. In a recent interview with the Post and Courier he said,

“I struggled more so trying to deny [my attraction to men] than being able to accept my attractions and say,

‘I am a gay man. I was a hot mess for 26 years and I have more peace now than I ever did.

When I started truth ministry, I believed the gay community and the world was lying about homosexuality and this whole subject. I felt like it was this big ruse and there was a lot of deceit. I was trying to tell the truth.
Now, I think its the complete opposite. I believe ex-gay ministry is a lie; conversion therapy is not just a lie, it’s very harmful. [Especially] when it takes it to the point of,

You need to change and here’s a curriculum, here’s how you do it, and you haven’t changed yet, keep at it, it’ll happen.’”

At 18, Game had his first relationship with a man. He began to embrace his sexuality, going out to gay bars and clubs. But he says that made him develop debilitating anxiety, insecurities, and mental breakdowns.

“I was having ongoing panic attacks, and I had never experienced that before. Emotionally, I was freaking out. I was crying. I was internally pained.

My brain was telling me, ‘You’re going in the wrong direction.’ But my body was telling me otherwise.”

In 1996, Game married his wife Julie — whom he met at church — but he remained attracted to men, which he says he was honest about in his marriage. On several occasions, he was caught watching gay pornography and even admitted to having an affair with a man.

What torture dude. Not to yourself, that’s on you, but you tormented others in the name of ignoring your OWN sexual identity. I hope someone forgives you. The kind of damage you inflicted is far-reaching and “I’m gay now, oops” doesn’t cut it in my book.