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“In the 1950s and 60s, we had the church deciding homosexuality was sinful, governments deciding that it was criminal, and then we had psychiatry state that we were sick,” Dr. Lawrence Hartmann<\/strong> says in the film <\/span>Cured<\/i><\/b><\/a>. “Both of my parents were psychoanalysts, so I read the psychiatric literature in my teens and twenties. It said gay people are universally nasty, pathetic, psychotic, manipulative, superficial, unable to form real relationships. As a young gay person, that was devastating.” Dr. Hartmann is a psychiatrist and important gay rights activist who helped lead reform within the American Psychiatric Association (APA).<\/span><\/p>\n In the early 1970s, queer activists began to more vocally protest the inclusion of \u201chomosexuality\u201d in the APA\u2019s 1952 and 1968 editions of the <\/span>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders <\/span><\/i>(DSM)<\/span>, <\/span><\/i>which declared gay and transgender people as unfit and mentally ill. As LGBTQ+ people across the country were losing jobs, kids, medical services and basic dignity, these activists wanted the diagnosis removed\u2014to move psychiatry into the 20th century.<\/span><\/p>\n Their ultimately successful work is detailed in <\/span>Cured<\/span><\/i>, which premieres on PBS on October 11, National Coming Out Day. But nearly 50 years later, the discredited practice of \u201cconversion therapy\u201d is still being used against queer people, particularly trans youth.<\/span><\/p>\n LGBTQ+ activist Kay Lahusen picketing at Independence Hall, July 4, 1969<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n “They had no idea what to do with me”<\/b><\/p>\n Chris Tyler grew up in Nevada and Utah, in a religious home where deviation from the norm wasn\u2019t tolerated in their Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation. His upbringing was a \u201chyper-conservative religious environment,\u201d and the church was \u201cthis water that I swam in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He understood he was gay by the time he was eight years old, but he internalized the church\u2019s overt message that homosexuality was \u201ca really bad thing.\u201d When he was 19, he confessed to a church bishop that he was gay, after refusing to participate in the sect\u2019s traditional two-year mission trip. Tyler was sent to his church\u2019s social services to see counselors \u201cwho were pretty clueless,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just had no idea what to do with me. It was the oddest thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Chris Tyler, 19 years old (at left), just a couple of years before “the ‘reparative therapy’ stint,” and today (at right).<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/div>\n “Reparative Therapy”<\/strong><\/p>\n With his first attempt at \u201creparative therapy\u201d behind him, Tyler decided to move to Seattle for art school. \u201c[I] ended up having a sexual experience with a guy that I met. Really nice guy, but I freaked out because all of my religious programming, anti-sex, anti-everything,\u201d Tyler explained. \u201cIt was like an emotional landmine in my mind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His parents found out and freaked out. \u201cThey sent me a letter. They say, \u2018You\u2019ve got to come home right away. Your father has access to this program that we can send you to that can help you,\u2019\u201d Tyler said. \u201cSo I left school and I moved back to Utah. I’ve still got the letter to this day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Tyler entered another \u201creparative therapy\u201d program in Salt Lake City called Evergreen. The 52-year-old compared it to Alcoholics Anonymous, men sitting in suits, sitting in a circle together\u2014or men playing sports, trying to pound heterosexuality into their system through physical exertion.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe core of the message was that homosexuality was simply a psychological malfunction of improper emotional development as a child and teenager,\u201d Tyler said. \u201cIt took me a long time to understand why I was so affected by it. I understand now, it’s because it was all shame, right? It was just horrible, horrible shame.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Facebook allowed ads for \u2018gay conversion therapy\u2019 to target LGBTQ users: https:\/\/t.co\/jEcgpMFGAG<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/zOh4b4d6jX<\/a><\/p>\n — Big Think (@bigthink) August 30, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Kay](\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/CUREDKay-Lahusen-Picketing-at-Independence-Hall-.jpg\")
![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/christyler-thenandnow.jpg\")
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