A Traitors star ‘escaped conversion therapy ‘ after a church tried to ‘cure’ him of being gay.
Matthew Hyndman, who is originally from Londonderry in Northern Ireland but now lives in Edinburgh, is currently competing in the fourth series of the BBC programm.
In 2015 the 35-year-old shared his experience of being subjected to conversion therapy after private online conversations where he disclosed his sexuality as a gay man were accidentally shared in an email to his congregation.
The creative director then founded the Ban Conversion Therapy movement in 2020, a UK-wide coalition campaigning to end the harmful practices attempting to suppress LGBTQ+ identities.
Writing in an op-ed for the Independent, Matthew revealed how he was pressured to undergo conversion therapy in front of 400 fellow missionaries at his religious community in Northern Ireland.
Discussing how he fought through the mental toll of the experience, he said: ‘I am glad that I had the strength of mind to refuse, and recognise that I didn’t need to change or “cure” myself.
‘For many, refusing conversion therapy means losing your family, faith, community, career, friends – your entire life. You do not have free will with a loaded gun to your head.’
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He also went on to explain: ‘Those who resist legislation against conversion therapy often resist the idea of a prayer or a pastoral conversation being subject to the scrutiny of law.
‘However, if these things take place in an overwhelmingly homophobic or transphobic context the pernicious power of prayer must be dealt with.’
What is conversion therapy?
Conversion therapy, also called reparative therapy, is the false idea that someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity can be changed.
The practice has in the past included abuse such as castration, electroshocks and beatings as well as ‘faith-based’ methods, like exorcisms.
Matthew revealed how one of his former churches sent him a letter that same year formally cancelling his membership because of his ‘lifestyle choices’ as a gay man and his refusal to undergo therapy.
Five years later, he and a close friend managed to garner support from other organisations, including Stonewall, with his Ban Conversion Therapy campaign.
Despite the growing movement, the practice is still yet to be outlawed through legislation after the UK government first pledged to ban conversion therapy in 2018.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that one in 10 LGBTQ+ people in the UK have undergone an ‘exorcism’ as a form of conversion therapy, according to a new survey.
Matthew described these ‘treatments’ as ‘degrading and discriminatory’ and said that they ‘ruin the lives of LGBT+ people’ and ‘must be outlawed’.
As a competitor on the latest season of The Traitors, Matthew will now have a larger platform to share his work with.
Ahead of this week’s episode, the 35-year-old’s power play to ask the Traitors to seduce him is already being touted as a ‘masterful’ move.
The Traitors continues on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on January 14.
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