True LGBTQ Stories: Gay Conversion Therapy Victim Says He Was Electrocuted (VIDEO)

I'm From Driftwood is a 501(c)(3) non-profit forum for true lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer stories. Earlier this year, founder and Executive Director Nathan Manske and two companions successfully completed a four-month, 50-state Story Tour collecting LGBTQ stories from towns and cities across the country. HuffPost Gay Voices will regularly feature stories from I'm From Driftwood. This is the first in the series.

We met Samuel Brinton during our visit to Kansas State. Sam was raised in rural Iowa and shared his story of growing up gay in a conservative, Southern Baptist family. Brinton's easy-going smile and friendly demeanor stand in stark contrast to the horrors of an abusive father and forced Christian conversion therapy.

"We then went into the 'Month of Hell,'" Brinton explains in the video below. "The 'Month of Hell' consisted of tiny needles being stuck into my fingers and then pictures of explicit acts between men would be shown and I'd be electrocuted."

In his story, Brinton describes his long road from self-hatred and rejection to acceptance, understanding and forgiveness.

WATCH:

Head over to ImFromDriftwood.com to see and read more stories and visit our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages.

 

Follow Nathan Manske on Twitter: www.twitter.com/imfromdriftwood

Comments

[Gregory Howell]

12:14 AM on 10/13/2011

Wow. What an impressive strong-willed young man. I have found myself feeling naive over and over again in my life and this is one of those times: I had no idea that there were people ("Christians" at that!) who are so sick that they would physically torture their children to try to change them. They are incredibly ignorant, arrogant and sadistic all at the same time. He has so much more patience and forgiveness in his heart than I could ever have. What an irony that mentally unbalanced parents (who should be in jail for child abuse) have produced such a fine, well-balanced son.

[Rowan Morrison]

12:43 PM on 10/11/2011

You are a wonderful, courageous young man and I would be so proud to call you a relative!

[Gyrlznluv]

10:48 AM on 10/11/2011

Well said Nathan!!!! "You can't change what I never choose"

[Ramiro Portillo]

05:17 AM on 10/11/2011

Those parents , taking their child for that type of Therapy was very much uncalled for. They should have been the once taking all of that pain. First of all, whoever the Theripist was or Hospital that did this to this child and his parents should be taken to court and punished to the full extend. I was bullied when I was young before Gay Bulling even existed. Mother never new why I would stay in my bed room looking up at the moon at night. Mothers always know which child is gay. So this lady should have protected him, not punished him. This has pissed me off. I am a retired Bank Officer and after 22years of dedication to the bank. When they found out that I was Gay and was living with HIV; they forced me to give them a 10 day noticed. I had a Nervous Breakdown.

[Chatt]

02:38 PM on 10/10/2011

So sad for this young man. People can be so ignorant.

[RockyMissouri]

02:27 PM on 10/10/2011

I think it is vital for the straight friends of LGBT to speak up and out, and LOUDLY...! To show the bigots and haters TO RE-THINK their attitudes.......and let them know, they are WRONG.

[maab76]

02:47 PM on 10/10/2011

There are many things we can change about ourselves:
1. hair color - and as we age it does it FOR us!
2. eye color - with colored contacts
3. skin color - Have you read, "Black like me"? or had a really dark suntan
4. our size - think about all the diets we have tried!
5. our gender - when specific abnormalities occur eg condescended testicles

But change our gender identity? FORGEDDABOUTIT. We are what we are. Learn to live with it and to celebrate it. It really is noone's business but your own.

[RockyMissouri]

03:19 PM on 10/10/2011

WELL SAID, maab! Remember QT..? - the stuff that turned you orange? I had to stop dyeing my hair...it was such a lovely, abnormal shade of red...Vanity is painful, and a pain to maintain. Now it's a mangled, multi-hued b o r I n g gray/white... It's growing on me....!

(ha!)

[PowerPridePinstripes]

08:14 AM on 10/10/2011

Edit - Mean't Sam...

[PowerPridePinstripes]

08:12 AM on 10/10/2011

What horrible parents! And what a powerful testimony for Nathan to share.

[Mindy Czech]

03:48 PM on 10/08/2011

Wow, that is absolutely reprehensible and without an excuse. You cannot change your sexual orientation, just like you don't choose it. Just because you went through the therapy and are now having relationships with the opposite sex, does not mean that you are no longer gay. It just means that you are lying to yourself about it, and trying to appease others. Those feelings and urges will not go away no matter how hard you pray, no matter how many electroconvulsive therapy sessions you went through, and no matter who you are married to now.

I used to date men, even though I wasn't attracted to them. I hoped that maybe it would make me straight and forget about the urges if I slept with men, but it did not happen. Almost every gay person I've ever met has been through the same thing. But we are who we are- gays and lesbians- and no matter how many straight relationships we try out, and no matter how much straight sex we have, nothing will change that. And personally, I don't want to change it. (Unless, of course, you are like that man in the UK who claims that, after having a stroke, he became gay.)

[keezze]

11:05 PM on 10/07/2011

The Baptist, and sothern intolerant world is dieing, just like the dictatorships around the world. The best and brightest of their offspring are moving to the big cities of the world. Even their slow and dullards are leavin. They just dont want to become their parents. Also after corn shucking and hunting rural america comes up pretty BORING. Thus befor the mass mass migrations the ole time folk are flipping on anything different, gay, rockand roll, artists, poets, whatever. But that abuse is another reason for the people to get away. How u gona keep em down on the farm after seeing gay pari

[RockyMissouri]

02:09 PM on 10/10/2011

Don't equate all rural folks with dullards and tea party people, some of the rural dwellers are very progressive..... and there are LGBT people there too...!

[RockyMissouri]

03:27 PM on 10/10/2011

I forgot to add: there are also straight people living in the rural areas who SUPPORT AND STAND BY THEIR GAY FRIENDS.... Rural America is really not much different than cities, in that, we all have access to the same things..... although city dwellers can get their pizza quicker!

[fratricide08]

09:07 PM on 10/07/2011

The 'therapist' who did this should be in jail. Torture is illegal and this is flat out torture. Where the f is the DA?

[TeraWatt60]

11:27 PM on 10/07/2011

exactly! the "therapist" would probably claim it is his victims who are persecuting him.

[RockyMissouri]

02:29 PM on 10/10/2011

I agree....!

[mneff07]

08:09 PM on 10/07/2011

I am so very sorry this happend to him, some people ought to be rquired to have a license to have children. I will say this to him, your parents not you have a problem. I believ God loves gay people, that he sent his son to be an atonment for sin for them too. I hope you find people that love you for the kind loving man you are. I will add this, I am praying for your parents to come to terms with thier lack of understanding, and hate may God forgive them, for they know not what they do.

[mech126]

06:59 PM on 10/07/2011

I am glad that i took the time to watch the video, what a strong young man.....

[Ed Baker]

05:37 PM on 10/07/2011

Isn't religion great???

[MartiniVirtuoso]

05:22 PM on 10/07/2011

I admire his ability to keep trying to connect, but he'll find his own family. My parents haven't spoken to me in many years for the same reason and I've reached a point of indifference about them. I no longer mourn the loss of my family. It is their choice and their issue. This young man seems to be a kind of son that most parents would want to have. I wish him luck in finding and building a family that deserves him.

[Atwill]

08:17 PM on 10/07/2011

i wish i could take in all of you gay people who were tossed out, and make you my kids. horrible for a parent to do that.

[HRH]

08:28 PM on 10/07/2011

Bless you.

[tygr49]

12:46 AM on 10/09/2011

What I would have given for a dad like you.

[Oh Johnny]

03:13 PM on 10/09/2011

I can relate to this great guy.
Me being gay cost me 20 years of separation from my family.

I spent holidays with other gays that were in the same boat. I can't say I missed the family after a short time, I became very indifferent. I was much more comfortable around my dear gay friends of many years.

LOGO has played a movie called "Latter Days" that deals with a Mormon boy that comes to term with his gayness while a missionary. The hell his parents and the church put him through is unconscionable.

The movie is hart wrenching, and though I've seen it a half dozen times I still weep at the end.

The religious community is freaking out because the public at large is accepting gays at record speed, and soon they will loose their gay bashing antics to raise money.

Hang in there,...It Gets Better

[RockyMissouri]

02:17 PM on 10/10/2011

We will call them out and denounce these UNGODLY religions as the phonies they are! It's no longer appropriate to mistreat others using religion.....