Bowen Yang Gets Real About “Painful” Conversion Therapy Past And Finding His Way
He lights up our screens on Saturday Night Live and starred as the scene-stealing Pfannee in last year’s movie adaptation of Wicked, but Bowen Yang recently shared details about a much darker, “very painful” chapter from his teenage years: undergoing conversion therapy. Speaking on Sunday TODAY, the comedian opened up about the experience and the healing that followed.
The Deal He Couldn’t Refuse?
So, how did a young Bowen Yang end up in conversion therapy? He explained that after his parents found out he was gay, they presented him with a condition.
“If you go to [conversion] therapy, then you can go to school at NYU where your sister is,” Yang recalled them saying. Faced with this, he felt he had little choice. “I kind of played along and I kind of just humored them and myself into seeing what it was,” he admitted.
It’s a situation many might find relatable – trying to navigate parental expectations while figuring out your own path.
Discovering The Damage
Yang quickly learned what health professionals have long confirmed: conversion therapy, the harmful and discredited practice aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, doesn’t work. Worse than that, it causes significant harm. Yang described the experience as “ultimately very painful and detrimental.” He acknowledged, “there was a lot of healing that happened after that.”
A Little Grace Goes A Long Way
Despite the pain caused, Yang approaches his parents’ actions with understanding. He told host Willie Geist their reaction stemmed from a lack of familiarity, summed up by their sentiment: “Where we come from, this doesn’t happen.” Yang reflected, “That was sort of their concept of it. And so I give them a lot of grace for that, because they just have no context for it.” He also shared that he hadn’t fully processed his own identity before they found out, adding, “I think I probably wasn’t brave enough back then to express that.”
Finding Light in Dark Times
Music became a crucial support during this period. On his podcast Las Culturistas, Yang previously told guest Lady Gaga that her anthem Born This Way was a lifeline. He listened to her music during “very dark times,” telling the superstar directly, “you’ve saved my life.” He connected the song’s release to his own journey, saying, “I think I had come out of the closet again when Born This Way came out, because I went to conversion therapy,” adding dryly that it “obviously did not work out.”
The NYU Punchline
What did work out was his plan to attend New York University. Yang finds humour in the situation now, laughing about his parents sending him to the Tisch School of the Arts. “Those poor people did not realise it’s one of the gayest schools in the country,” he quipped. His desire to be in New York was strong even earlier; he recalled a trip where, unable, to get Wicked tickets, he simply pressed his face against the theatre glass “just to feel a tactility, a contact, with this – this musical that I loved.”
It seems some things were just meant to be. From that moment outside the Gershwin Theatre to his memorable appearance as Pfannee in Wicked last year, Yang’s story highlights the resilience and the power of finding your way, even after facing detrimental hurdles.
