During this year's General Assembly, House Bill 427, aiming to ban conversion therapy for minors failed. It was moved off the Senate floor and buried in a new subcommittee.
However, Mathew Shurka, 27, isn’t letting this bill go down without a fight. Shurka endured years of conversion therapy starting when he was 16 years old after he told his father he was gay.
Born and raised in a Jewish suburb of Great Neck, N.Y., Shurka grew up in a traditional, heteronormative community. Twenty-four hours after coming out, Mathew’s father panicked and began to look into therapy for his son.
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