{"id":67488,"date":"2023-09-20T19:07:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T19:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beststarnews.com\/?p=67488"},"modified":"2023-09-20T19:07:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T19:07:03","slug":"disney-channel-alum-matthew-scott-montgomery-recalls-attending-gay-conversion-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beststarnews.com\/lifestyle\/disney-channel-alum-matthew-scott-montgomery-recalls-attending-gay-conversion-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Channel Alum Matthew Scott Montgomery Recalls Attending Gay Conversion Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>&quot;I would have these silver rods that I would have to hold in my hands,&quot; the So Random! star claimed, adding, &quot;They would try to build up your tolerance for the electric shocking until it was painful.&quot;<\/h2>\n<p>Matthew Scott Montgomery is speaking out about his experience with gay conversion therapy.<\/p>\n<p>While appearing on Tuesday&#8217;s episode of <strong>Christy Carlson Romano&#8217;s<\/strong> <em><strong>Vulnerable<\/strong><\/em> podcast, the Disney Channel alum &#8212; who starred on the <em>Sonny with a Chance<\/em> spinoff <em>So Random! <\/em>&#8212; recalled attending a &#8220;reparative therapy&#8221; program after he came out to his parents at 18.<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery, 34, detailed how he would attend conversation therapy on his days off from Disney Channel, noting that Disney was &#8220;really great&#8221; to him and had &#8220;nothing to do with&#8221; his decision.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.toofab.com\/image\/47\/5by4\/2023\/08\/24\/478052b8eb5d4d71b3ea34083a198ca4_xs.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" class=\"img-fluid article-block__img-fluid\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>            That&#039;s So Raven&#039;s Anneliese van der Pol Recalls Serving Ashley Tisdale During Waitressing Gig          <\/h4>\n<p>&#8220;No one knew,&#8221; he told Romano, 39. &#8220;My castmates did not know at the time &#8230; it was a secret.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The North Carolina native said he came out to his parents in March 2010 while at a restaurant at the popular Los Angeles shopping center at The Grove.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was bad,&#8221; Montgomery recalled. &#8220;My mom, like, collapsed, sobbing when she found out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said his parents left town, before his dad called him the next day, and said they were returning to LA, and wanted him to &#8220;introduce&#8221; himself to them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My parents sat there, and my dad puts down this huge stack of research he&#8217;d done, and he was like, &#8216;Being gay is a choice, and I have set you up with reparative therapy to go there now,'&#8221; Montgomery said, noting that &#8220;reparative therapy&#8221; is &#8220;another name&#8221; for conversion therapy.<\/p>\n<p>Since he was 18, the actor said he &#8220;technically went to conversion therapy at my own free will.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unable to render YouTube Video.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Disney\u2019s Matthew Scott Montgomery Survived Gay Conversion Therapy | #79\" width=\"860\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2SIpVxrJQkw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have to understand that in the environment that I grew up in, you&#8217;re taught that you deserve to be punished all the time,&#8221; Montgomery said, later adding, &#8220;At the time, the career stuff was going so well that I was, like, still in this broken prison brain of thinking, &#8216;I&#8217;m on red carpets. I&#8217;m on TV every week. This is too good, I should be punished on my days off.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Shake It Up <\/em>star said he initially attended conversion therapy on his days off for an hour and a half, before six months later, he was going three hours a week. Montgomery said he attended therapy at a facility in Los Angeles led by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi &#8212; the late clinical psychologist known for his practice of &#8220;reparative therapy&#8221; &#8212; but his son, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr., was his therapist.<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery said the center was &#8220;Christian and prided itself on being a Hollywood place,&#8221; adding that it was directed at &#8220;gay men who wanted to be turned from gay to straight and make it as a straight movie star in LA.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said it started as talk therapy, before it later &#8220;turned into&#8221; him being assigned &#8220;homework.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had a textbook that I had to fill out equations in it &#8212; they were basically like science equations &#8212; and what they taught there at this place is there&#8217;s no such thing as a gay man,&#8221; Montgomery claimed. &#8220;There are straight boys who are born with sensitive, artistic temperaments who have emotionally overbearing mothers and emotionally unavailable fathers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery added that he had to &#8220;fill out worksheets every night&#8221; in which he had to &#8220;trace it back&#8221; when he was &#8220;feeling SSA (same-sex attraction)&#8221; to a possible moment of feeling insecure or ashamed. The <em>Jane the Virgin<\/em> actor said other &#8220;homework&#8221; included playing football and apologizing to his father for &#8220;being a sensitive, artistic little boy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.toofab.com\/image\/9a\/5by4\/2023\/09\/12\/9a7a97b15b004642af85421d0c9bb49d_xs.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" class=\"img-fluid article-block__img-fluid\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>            Demi Lovato Says Boyfriend Jutes Has Helped Heal &#039;Daddy Issues,&#039; Sees Marriage in Future          <\/h4>\n<p>Montgomery said he then underwent shock therapy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would have these silver rods that I would have to hold in my hands,&#8221; he claimed, adding, &#8220;They would try to build up your tolerance for the electric shocking until it was painful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Montgomery, he would be told to &#8220;imagine scenarios&#8221; &#8212; such as hugging a straight man &#8212; and would be given a &#8220;zap to [his] hands&#8221; to &#8220;zap that out of you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One day, he said he &#8220;just kind of woke up,&#8221; noting that the &#8220;healing&#8221; of being an actor helped him. He recalled a play he worked on, in which his character &#8220;was abused for being gay&#8221; before he was adopted by the family next door who &#8220;loved me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that was the therapy I actually needed,&#8221; he reflected, &#8220;because I got the experience of what it was like to have a family not only love me, but celebrate me and really accept me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery went on to recall becoming close friends with queer stars &#8212; such as Hayley Kiyoko and <strong>Demi Lovato<\/strong> &#8212; and how they became his chosen family.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Demi&#8217;s family. That&#8217;s my family, that&#8217;s my soulmate,&#8221; he told Romano. &#8220;That&#8217;s the person who loves me the deepest. At that point, I was able to begin to carefully curate a life that was filled with love and art and expression that was satisfying me and making me so happy in a way that I had never been before.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the conversation, Montgomery looked at the camera and directed a message to those who have been &#8212; or might be considering &#8212; conversation therapy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re listening to this and you either have been through conversion therapy or thinking about it or your parents or making you or somebody&#8217;s making you, there&#8217;s nothing wrong with you,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s not a thing in the world wrong with you. You are loved. You deserve to have a perfect beautiful life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>For those who need help or would like more information, click <\/em><em><strong>here<\/strong><\/em><em> to access The Trevor Project&#8217;s resource center.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.toofab.com\/image\/c3\/4by3\/2023\/09\/18\/c3152f8886484e06826f636619f5449a_md.jpg\" width=\"825\" height=\"618\" class=\"img-fluid gallery-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\" \/><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/toofab.com\/2023\/09\/20\/disney-channel-alum-matthew-scott-montgomery-recalls-attending-gay-conversion-therapy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&quot;I would have these silver rods that I would have to hold in my hands,&quot; the So Random! star claimed, adding, &quot;They would try to build up your tolerance for the electric shocking until it was painful.&quot; Matthew Scott Montgomery is speaking out about his experience with gay conversion therapy. While appearing on Tuesday&#8217;s episode of Christy Carlson Romano&#8217;s Vulnerable [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Disney Channel Alum Matthew Scott Montgomery Recalls Attending Gay Conversion Therapy - Best Star News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beststarnews.com\/lifestyle\/disney-channel-alum-matthew-scott-montgomery-recalls-attending-gay-conversion-therapy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disney Channel Alum Matthew Scott Montgomery Recalls Attending Gay Conversion Therapy - Best Star News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;I would have these silver rods that I would have to hold in my hands,&quot; the So Random! star claimed, adding, &quot;They would try to build up your tolerance for the electric shocking until it was painful.&quot; Matthew Scott Montgomery is speaking out about his experience with gay conversion therapy. 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