As the French seemingly coined mémoire to mean a literary genre of intimate memories, few are as shattering and complex as WHY: A Memoir by Randy Scobey. Riddled in truth, trauma and controversial ideologies, WHY: A Memoir is the raw depiction of one man’s journey from self-hate to self-discovery.
This luminous book presents the seamless authenticity of life’s uncanny ability to twist and turn. In WHY: A Memoir, we enter the world of one man’s inner torment of sexual identity that drove him to persecute his own community. From a homeless teen, to being rescued by a drag queen, to the Executive Vice President of the nation’s largest ex-gay conversion group, to being the catalyst to its demise—Randy’s unique life unfolds in multiple cycles of trauma.
In this tale of psychological abuse, we see the all-too-familiar coming out endeavor experienced by myriad members of the LGBTQ+ community. Randy was ostracized from his conservative Christian home at the tender age of 19. Homeless, alone and afraid, Randy fell into a dangerous rhythm of substance abuse. Despite the intervention of Momma Mella, the drag queen who saved his life, Randy was utterly vulnerable and disarmed—the perfect target for the ex-gay conversion group Exodus International.
As the book continues to delve deeper into a world of disenchantment, Randy befriends a woman that introduces him to a community. A community that would surely deliver them both from addiction and into salvation. Unbeknownst to them both, the entanglement that unfolds from this seemingly innocent introduction leads down a dark path of manipulation and lies.
Over the subsequent twenty-three years, Randy was emotionally imprisoned by pastoral messaging, adopting the conversion therapy stigma with homosexuality as the scapegoat. Conversion therapy is a discredited practice and toxic ideology that has been widely condemned by most major medical institutions and banned in more than 20 states from being used with minors. Through Exodus, Randy, a closeted gay man, became the face for ex-gay ministry. As the national spokesperson, Randy publicly denounced homosexuality and asserted conversion therapy worked… until suicide changed his life.
