DRAG RACE'S MO HEART OPENS UP ABOUT PAINFUL TIME IN CONVERSION THERAPY

With 14 regular seasons, six all-star seasons, and various international spin-offs, Rupaul’s Drag Race is a TV franchise with serious staying power. That’s because, in addition to the drama and incredible runway looks, it also tugs at viewers’ heartstrings by airing the struggles and triumphs of queer people just trying to exist as their true, authentic selves. Case in point: Mo Heart opened up about her painful convection therapy experiences on this week’s episode of Drag Race UK vs. the World.

As the queens were getting ready for their runway presentation — which saw them in incredible looks based on art from Warhol to Dali — the mirror chat turned to the subject of growing up gay in their respective countries. Drag Race Amsterdam alum Janey Jacké shared how, having been bullied for being queer as a child, she was supported by her parents who moved her to a part of the country where she’d be safe.

“It was very clear from a very young age that I was very homosexual,” she recalled. “So, I’m very happy and very grateful for my parents to be so open-minded, that it’s more about the happiness and the love rather than sticking to certain religious values.”

Mo Heart, in turn, shared a much more painful, traumatic, and ultimately inspiring story of growing up gay in a Christian church. Hart shared that she’d never felt as though she fit in because she was “queer and effeminate,” and that this led to her being put into conversion therapy. “You know, in Black churches, it’s very charismatic and you know, they’re going to bind and rebuke this homosexual demon off of you,” she said. “Their end goal was, I guess, straightness. You just grow up just feeling condemned and like, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ and ‘Why am I here?’”

Heart recounted the “success story” of two queer people who were supposedly converted and made her believe maybe she could be “cured” of being gay. “I had these leaders who, like he was gay and his wife was a lesbian and somehow they found the lord and now they have, like, five kids and they’re like, ‘So you can do it!’” she shared.

Ultimately, Mo realized that she both couldn’t nor shouldn’t change a thing about her sexuality — and she had a message for those who were considering conversion therapy. “I’m going to tell you — don’t,” she said. “Don’t even waste your time or your money.”

“You are enough, there is not one part of you that is broken, don’t buy into the hype that there is something wrong with you – lies, lies, lies,” she concluded. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

SOURCE: ADVOCATE