Actor Daniel Franzese has opened up about his experience of conversion therapy, saying that he was "brainwashed" into cutting ties with his mother after forcing himself into the pseudoscientific treatment because he "didn't want to be gay".
Franzese, who played Damian in the 2004 film 'Mean Girls', said he felt “lovingly tolerated” by his Catholic and Pentecostal Christian congregation, but that it was “the world around” him that made him “feel like being gay was not OK".
The actor said he met with a conversion therapist who was recommended to his grandmother by her church pastor.
"I went to one-on-one therapy sessions with a person who was trying to change me straight and make me pray the gay away and alienate all my allies,” he told Page Six.
“They told me to tell my mom that my mom was the reason that I was leaning toward bisexual thoughts or whatever because she was so open. They made me come out to my mom, who was literally like my best ally, and say, ‘It’s your fault.’”
Franzese lamented that the conversation led to him falling out with his mother, who he didn't speak to for two months.
He has since reconciled with his mum and said their relationship has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Franzese said that in 2014, on the tenth anniversary of Mean Girls, he received a letter from a fan that inspired him to come out.
The letter was from someone who was being bullied at school. But when Mean Girls came out, he started being compared to Daniel's character in 'Mean Girls', Damian.
"You made me popular in high school," the person wrote. "Thank you for giving me something in media that I can point to and say, ‘That’s me, and I’m proud.’”"
Daniel said the letter was "really impactful" because he realised that this was what he needed as a young person.
"Like, I was just missing one person that told me that I could do that," he said. "I could be who I want to be and do what I want to do.”
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