For years, Elena Joy Thurston thought love wasn't real, and everyone else was faking it. So in 2017, when she realized she had feelings for another woman, she was elated.
“All of a sudden falling in love, feeling all those things that they talked about in romance novels and movies and such, and actually realizing it was—people actually do experience this,” she said.
But Elena was a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and she was already married to a man. For three weeks, Elena secretly texted and met up with the woman she fell for. When her husband found out, Elena believed she had to confess and repent to her Bishop; If he forgave her, she would be free of sin.
“I was told I wasn't making any progress,” she said. “And a friend told me, ‘There's a guy in town. I think he fixes this stuff. Do you want to talk to him?’”
That guy was Wayne Johnson, and Elena went to him to try and change her sexuality through a process known as conversion therapy. For six months, she spent eight hours a week with him. Wayne's process involves talking through Elena's childhood memories, searching for a moment where a man might have traumatized her.
But it didn't work.
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