Sarah O'Connor

I received this book from the editor in exchange for an honest review. 

“Despair followed me like a lingering shadow. The passage of days and nights became a seamless blur, rendering the concept of time inconsequential…Believing death to be my sole escape, I grappled with the realization that both suicide and homosexuality were considered sins,” (“Convert” by Gemma Hickey, 155).

Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories on Conversion Therapy is a collection of accounts by queer and trans writers recalling traumatic forms of conversion practices they’ve experienced in the hopes that such practices will no longer be used to shame, demonize, and traumatize people in the LGTBQ2S+.

This was a hard read. I give kudos to Wilson and the contributors of the collection for their vulnerability in their essays. While many follow a theme of going through conversion practices because of religious practices or religion-based therapy, the shared harm and the variety of trauma is difficult to read. As the contributors go back into their memories and share the old shame that used to cling to them, the self-hatred, and the feeling of hopelessness that they were beyond saving, that they were less than because of who they are should upset readers but it should also make them angry. It should make you angry that such practices existed to make LGTBQ2S+ people believe that they were better off repressing themselves or worse, better off dead, than living their lives as queer and trans individuals. This book should make you angry that so many people suffered, that even with conversion therapy being illegal in Canada it still exists and is still happening in different ways.

Shame-Sex Attraction is a deeply vulnerable book, and I hope that it does reach the bigoted and close-minded and somehow changes their viewpoint, that it somehow shows the harm these practices have caused as a sort of eureka moment for those who thought what they were doing was for the good of people’s souls. I’d love to believe this, but with the state of the world as it is, with the pendulum sweeping far-right I’m doubtful. But change can’t happen without a spark, and I do believe this book can create that change.

My few criticisms are ones that Wilson himself acknowledges in the Afterword of this collection.. Wilson explains that there are “several representational shortcomings…chiefly on stories of conversion practices in religious contexts, with the exception of one story, it is important to reiterate that conversation practices (and ideology) extend beyond religious organizations (and anti-LGTBQ2S+ religious biases” and that “there is also a long history of change efforts in non-religious healthcare and counseling settings.” Wilson also mentions that “the vast majority of the contributors are white, though…research suggests that people of colour are more likely to have been exposed to conversion practices.” So while I would have liked to read a variety of experiences from POC and those who experienced conversion practices outside of religious institutions, the editor himself and I acknowledge that if the contributions didn’t come from these populations then there is little that could be done. However, it doesn’t mean that another collection won’t exist in the future that does check off these boxes and give voice to this population.

My thanks again to the editor for sending me this book. Shame-Sex Attraction is a difficult, vulnerable, but necessary read. We cannot avoid the past if we are not aware of it. I hope that this book changes the mind of anyone who thinks that conversion practices are right or just, and I hope this book finds readers and teaches them that they are perfect and beautiful just how they are.

Publication: January 21 2025
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Pages: 192 pages (eBook)
Source: Editor
Genre: Non-Fiction, Essays, LGTBQ+
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:

We are survivors.
We were subjected to dehumanizing practices by people who sought our erasure.
We believe telling our stories is both powerful and political.
This edited collection brings together the experiences of those who have been subjected to queer conversion therapy – it is an effort to expose conversion practices for what they are – pseudoscientific, bogus, ineffective, and wildly traumatic – and to recognize and listen to survivors. With contributions from Gregory Elsasser-Chavez, Chaim Levin, Lexie Bean, Syre Klenke, and many more from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum – this is an attempt to ensure that what happened within these pages cannot – and will not – happen to future generations.