MTV Features Gay Mormon from Utah

true_lifeJayce underwent horrific shock therapy

From the News section of gay.com

A gay Mormon from Utah is one of the four people featured in the documentary “True Life: I’m Coming Out,” premiering on MTV Thursday, June 27, 2002, from 10 to 11 p.m. ET. Just a few years ago, Jayce sought help from Evergreen, a Mormon organization that promises to “cure” homosexuality. For more than two months, he endured shock therapy treatments, which he describes in detail in the documentary.

Jayce says electrodes were hooked up to various parts of his body, including his genitals, and he was shocked while being forced to look at images of gay pornography. “It just hurt so much. It would just shake me and jolt me, and I would sit there and try to endure the electricity as long as I could,” he tearfully recalls. “Every session the voltage would increase. I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody what was going on. I was supposed to lie at all costs.”

Jayce’s story is harsh, painful to listen to and particularly powerful. It is amazing that the filmmakers were able to get him to share it on camera.