He lived on the edges of the gay community there. SPIEGEL: And so after graduating from college, Wyler moved out to L.A. And at least in that moment I looked and I felt really relieved and like go out and enjoy it. WYLER: I remember distinctly looking in the mirror and saying, you're gay, that's it, stop trying to deny it, stop trying to hide it. Still, ultimately he decided there was just no ignoring reality. And while he knew that they couldn't accept him, the idea of leaving them behind was horrifying. SPIEGEL: Wyler had grown up a conservative Christian. RICH WYLER: It meant probably walking away from my religion, not having the wife and children of my future that I would expect, lots of shame and conflict with family and others. The fact that he was gay was going to cost him. This morning, NPR's Alix Spiegel has this look at the practice of conversion therapy, profiling the therapy experiences of two men.ĪLIX SPIEGEL: At age 16, Rich Wyler sat down to calculate the cost of his attraction to men and came to a grim realization. It's hardly new, but it's in the news again because the mental health clinic run by the husband of Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann reportedly provides such therapy. Conversion therapy is a psychotherapy which aims to help gay men and women become straight. Today in Your Health, a controversy that is both political and personal.
