I was 19, gay and ready to be ‘cured’ by conversion therapy

Born into a Baptist family, Garrard Conley was sent for conversion therapy to ‘treat’ his sexual identity. As his brave and bracing memoir is adapted into a film, he reveals why he still believes he is ‘one of the lucky ones’Here’s what Garrard Conley had to surrender the morning he arrived at the Love in Action facility in Memphis, Tennessee in 2004: his phone, his wallet, his driving licence and a Moleskine journal in which he wrote his short stories. A blond boy