Justin Utley remembers being told by his therapists that the word gay is a verb and not a noun.
“That I would only be gay if I act gay,” said Utley, a Salt Lake City resident who said he survived two years of talk therapy aimed at changing his sexual orientation — or what’s more commonly known as “conversion therapy.”
His therapists insisted his same-sex attraction must be related to childhood trauma and told him he was suppressing memories of sexual abuse. Though he was never abused, he said he believed them at the time. They were the experts.