McKrae Game’s story made international headlines as “Former Conversion Therapist Comes Out as Gay and Renounces His Work”. At age 22, he became a Christian and soon afterward, discovered the world of conversion therapy where he was told that his attractions would diminish and shift. He eventually learned that this was not true. He married and had children, then started a ministry that in 2013 became a national network, one of the largest ex-gay organizations in the world. Over 20 years in ministry, he counseled hundreds seeking freedom from the LGBTQ+ lifestyle believing he was helping people. Today however, McKrae realizes that he caused harm, enforcing the cycle of confusion and shame in those he served. Today, he fully accepts himself as a gay man, and encourages those that are rejecting their sexuality to embrace themselves as a whole person. His desire is to see conversion therapy banned, to see parents love their gay or trans child, for society to learn to accept and love LGBTQ+ persons as the beautiful people they are, and to see LGBTQ+ suicides drastically reduced. He believes all these can be accomplished if people were to realize that God loves them for who they are, and that they do not need to conform to cultural or religious expectations to receive and embrace that full love and acceptance.
Derek Webb believes that an artist should “Look at the world and describe it.” Over his long career (nearly 25 years, counting his tenure as founder & lead singer/songwriter of folk rock ensemble Caedmon’s Call), he has risked everything year after year to do that job. While Webb is most identified with his provocative & fearless writing style, in more recent years his description of the world has done more to comfort the afflicted than his typical M.O. of afflicting the comfortable.
