Men looked ‘tortured’: Doctor opens up about gay conversion therapy

Dr Brad McKay, a GP, science educator and TV host, told news.com.au he was sent to homophobic prayer meetings and visited a Pentecostal church where a preacher tried to “faith heal” his sexuality, after coming out in his early twenties.

He said he felt disheartened by seeing how miserable some of the men in the groups looked. But he also came across men who turned online discussion forums into hook-up spaces for gay Christian men.

Dr McKay was raised in a devout Baptist household and when he came out at the end of medical school, his parents were not supportive.

“My mum just thought it was the worst thing that had ever happened and my dad was devastated with it,” he said.

“They didn’t know how to deal with it at all. They turned to their church for support because that’s their background — that’s their community.”

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Dr McKay’s parents were involved with Exodus Ministry, which developed into Living Waters Australia — a church with links to conversion therapies.

The church believes being gay or lesbian “wasn’t part of God’s plan” and wasn’t “normal or natural” and their sons or daughters were “obviously broken and needed to be fixed with prayer”.

During this period he was introduced to a psychologist linked with Living Waters by a family member, who he agreed to meet with.

But Dr McKay said the psychologist was “unprofessional” and approached their sessions with entrenched homophobic views.

“(These groups) found over time they weren’t doing any good, they were forming more and more anxiety,” he said.

Dr McKay said he even knew of groups were people would get online and share experiences of “being a gay Christian and not wanting to be gay”.

“And all these guys would just end up hooking up with each other,” he said.

But he said he’d also attended a Bible study with older men who had been trying to be straight “for decades”. He said the men were “tormented” and seeing this was “disheartening”.

“For me trying to please my family — I was feeling anxious and depressed because of being attracted to guys, and trying to deal with family, and also other health issues,” he said.

‘Anyone can go into a strange area of health’

As a teenager Dr McKay suffered from severe back pain, caused by a rare type of bone tumour. His illness was misdiagnosed as regular pain, and he was sent to an osteopath.

He was treated with a heated rod, which caused blood to rush to the tumour, increasing his pain.

“I acknowledge anyone can go into a strange area of health and it’s very easy to be led down the wrong path by the wrong people,” he said.

Dr McKay explained that “doctors often think common things are common”.

While he said the process of being diagnosed was frustrating he urged people with complex medical issues to keep pushing “up the rung” as opposed to abandoning their doctor.

He gave the example of a naturopath prescribing turmeric for back pain — which won’t help a rare tumour.

“I see a lot of patients who come in and say, ‘I’m trying turmeric for my osteoarthritis, and I think it’s working’,” he said.

Dr Brad dismissed this, saying most alternative therapies used at the moment “do nothing”.

McKay still open to some alternative therapies

Dr McKay said he is still open to researching particular requests from patients and will listen to them if they request alternative therapies.

He said a patient once requested no “synthetic chemicals” when wanting to treat a thyroid condition, and wanted a “natural hormone”.

“When I looked into it — this ‘biological thyroid hormone’ (she was taking) was made from ground down sheep and cow thyroid hormones,” he said.

“You’d have no idea of the dose you’re taking — it’s not measured.

“I think going through the experiences I have, with church, speaking with naturopaths, using traditional Chinese medicine, and seeing osteopaths — all of these experiences I’ve had in my health journey has given me an idea of what’s going on.

“I think a lot of GPs in particular, but also specialists, are in our own silos.

“We have that scientific basis, when somebody says something about an alternative therapy or a complementary medicine … we’ll often smile and change the topic — and not address the deeper issue going on.”

Fake Medicine: Exposing the Wellness Quacks and Cons Costing us Our Health by Dr Brad McKay is out now through Hachette Australia