My Life As A Lesbian Poem by Raychel Lawrence

When I told my mom that I was a lesbian she said don't worry we can fix that as if my sexuality was a disease that could be cured.
When I was just 13 years old I was put in an electric chair for the crime of being gay.
When I was 14 they tried to make me hate myself. You cannot love others if you cannot love yourself. I cried for hours and I wondered how could my parents be okay with sending me here. My parents where paying money for me to betortured.
I wanted to die. Dying would be better than staying alive.
They asked me how I could know that Iliked girls if I had never had any experience with a man.They pushed me to the ground and rapped me. I was 15.
I remember thinking that I didn't deserve this being gay is not a crime so stop punishing me for being who I am. Being gay is not a disease so stop trying to cure me. I'm a lesbian but that doesn't make me less of a being.
I'm 28 now
I used be afraid to hold hand with my wife in public.
I used to have nightmares every night.
All because I was sent to conversion therapy when I was thirteen.
I've spent years signing petitions and calling congressmen to get conversion therapy banned so no one ever has to go through what I went through.
And every time someone says I'm an abomination or that I can be cured I'll just say baby I was born this way.