Reparative Therapy Survivor & Witness Against Prop 8
Ryan Kendall, Denver CO
On 20 January 2010, Ryan Kendall testified as a fact witness in the landmark case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal trial to overturn California's discriminatory Proposition 8. Kendall took the stand to speak to the immutability of sexual orientation, living proof that you can't "pray away the gay."
Kendall, a Colorado Springs native, was subjected to "reparative therapy" beginning when he was just 14, when his evangelical Christian parents discovered he was gay. A year after his testimony, Kendall reflected on the trial in an Out Front Colorado exclusive; the terrifying and true scenarios which filled it, and what the now named Hollingsworth v. Perry case means not only for marriage equality, but for all LGBT kids still suffering from intolerance and hatred.
Read Ryan's story here as printed in Out Front Colorado's Blog.
Ryan served as MEUSA Chapter Leader in Colorado while working and attending school in Denver. He is currently attending Columbia University in New York City. His goal is to become an attorney and work in the field of civil rights.
