[music playing]
ALEX COOPER: I'm Alex Cooper.
And when I was
15, I fell in love
and came out to my parents.
And the next thing
I knew, I was being
sent to conversion therapy.
XAVIER PERSAD:
Conversion therapy
refers to a range of dangerous
and discredited practices that
tries to change a person's
sexual orientation
or gender identity.
Conversion therapy is
based on the false notion
that being LGBTQ is an illness
that needs to be cured.
This idea has been discredited
by every major health
organization in the
country and abroad.
ALEX COOPER: I grew up
in Southern California.
I grew up pretty
religious, but I
always had an extremely
happy childhood,
a really tight family.
When my parents took me
to conversion therapy,
they picked me up
from a friend's house
with all of my things
already packed in the car,
and we drove to Southern
Utah, St. George.
And we pulled up to
a stranger's house.
The couple came outside of the
house and brought me inside,
and my parents signed over their
parental rights to this couple.
They practiced
conversion therapy
unlicensed in their home.
Neither one of
them had a degree,
or had even finished
high school,
but they told my
parents that they
were able to make me straight.
JACK DRESCHER: It's
important to understand
the history of this area is
that, in 1973, the American
Psychiatric Association removed
homosexuality from its list
of mental disorders.
And since that time,
nobody teaches you
how to change homosexuality
in a mainstream mental health
training program.
That, of course, is a
problem, because there
is no real regulation of the
people who try and do this.
ALEX COOPER: It started with
keeping me out of school.
I learned how to take
care of a household,
including all of their kids.
Getting them ready for
school, making meals,
keeping the house clean.
JACK DRESCHER: There are
lots of different ways
people have tried to
change sexual orientation
through conversion therapies.
Most conversion
therapies are talk
therapies, where they just try
and talk the person out of it.
But there are aversion
therapies, in which pain can be
inflicted on the person
as a way to discourage
them from having
homosexual feelings
or homosexual thoughts.
ALEX COOPER: I was
given the backpack.
They filled it with
rocks and told me
that it was supposed to help
me feel the physical burden
of being gay.
I started wearing it for
a couple hours a day.
And then when I was
still not accepting
what they were saying, it
got up to be 18 hours a day
at some points.
JACK DRESCHER: One of the
problems with these conversion
therapies is the patient is
usually told that the success
depends on their motivation,
or in religious therapies,
on their faith.
And when the
treatments don't work--
because they don't work--
they always blame themselves,
not the therapist.
So they feel worse
than when they started.
XAVIER PERSAD: LGBTQ
youth who experience
this type of
rejection are almost
six times as likely to report
high levels of depression.
ALEX COOPER: It was definitely
the darkest point in my life,
even to thoughts of suicide
and suicide attempted.
PAUL C. BURKE: Alex is
a remarkable young woman
who has come through
a hellish experience
and made her experience into
one that has value for herself,
for her family, and
for other people.
And I admire that she has been
able to take her suffering
and turn it into something
positive for herself
and others.
ALEX COOPER: It's been
eight years since I've
been in conversion
therapy, but it's still
something that I have
to carry with me,
something that I think about
when I go to the grocery store,
or something that I think about
when I'm putting on a backpack
to go on a hike.
Now that I'm out, I realize
that it wasn't just me.
There's hundreds and
thousands of kids that
go through conversion therapy.
Experts estimate that as many
as one in three LGBTQ youth
will undergo some form
of conversion therapy.
But progress is happening.
Today, we have 18 states,
including the District
of Columbia and Puerto Rico,
that have laws or regulations
that prohibit state-licensed
mental health professionals
from engaging in conversion
therapy with people
under the age of 18.
The good news is that there
are lawyers across the country
committed to
helping young people
escape from conversion therapy.
Alex fought to establish
her right to live
as an openly gay teenager.
She ultimately obtained
an order from the court
in St. George,
Utah, that protected
her right to be herself.
ALEX COOPER: To be able
to openly date girls
and do all the normal
things was amazing.
Without that, I don't think
I'd be where I am today.
I moved out of St.
George when I was 18.
I moved to Portland, Oregon.
I live with my girlfriend
and my best friend
in this really beautiful city.
I get to do important work
with really amazing people.
I have been lucky enough to work
with the Human Rights Campaign,
the National Center for Lesbian
Rights, their Born Perfect
campaign, and a lot of other
non-profits in between,
just being able to speak
out about conversion therapy
and making sure people
know how dangerous it is.
Going through conversion
therapy, I heard a lot of it
will get better.
But when is it
going to get better?
Who's going to make it better?
But I think if I
could say something
to my 16-year-old self, I'd say
you get to be the person that
makes it better.
You have the opportunity to
change things for other people.
It will get better.
