LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Former Disney star Matthew Scott Montgomery has opened up on his horrifying past. The 'So Random!' alum has detailed his traumatic experience with gay conversion therapy after he disclosed his sexuality to his parents.
"My mom collapsed sobbing when she found out," he shared on the 'Vulnerable' podcast according to Fox News.
"My parents were really upset, and they left town. My dad hit me up like the next day and he’s like, ‘We feel like we don’t know you. We’re going to come back in town, and we want you to introduce yourself to us,'" he said.
Matthew Scott Montgomery said his parents were very conservative
The 34-year-old explained that his parents were "very, very conservative" while he grew up in North Carolina and had set traditional standards for their son.
"How I grew up is, you find what sport you're good at, you get a scholarship for that," he said.
"If that doesn't work, you get a scholarship for grades, go to college, find a woman to get married [to], and then get a house. That was the only option that I was told or saw. Which sounds like my first nightmare. No offense to anybody," he continued.
Matthew Scott Montgomery did not want to disappoint his parents
He added that he did not want to disappoint his parents for his guilty conscience kicked in while he slowlymaking his name as a rising Disney star.
He secretly attended gay conversion therapy on his days off and admitted that he "should be punished" for his sexuality.
You have to understand that in the environment that I grew up in, you're taught that you deserve to be punished all the time," he explained.
"At the time, the career stuff was going so well that I was still in this broken prison brain of thinking, 'I'm on red carpets. I'm on TV every week. This is too good, I should be punished on my days off,'" he continued.
What is gay conversion therapy?
According to the American Medical Association, conversion therapy "refers to any form of intervention such as individual or group, behavioral, cognitive, or milieu/environmental operations, that attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or sexual behaviors or an individual’s gender identity."
The star clearly stated that the channel "had nothing to do" with his decision and he admitted he sought therapy due to his parents’ reaction.
Matthew Scott Montgomery's harrowing experience with conversion therapy
He went on to detail his unforgettable experience with conversion therapy which included electroshock therapy and hypnosis.
"I would have these silver rods that I would have to hold in my hands, and they're really kind of like covert and tricky about how they got you to do it because they were like, 'We're going to try something a little bit different,'" Montgomery explained on the podcast.
Montgomery further said that he participated in activities including filling out worksheets for three hours a week to express how he felt about other men and apologized to his father for being "a sensitive, artistic little boy."
He termed the experience as "painful," especially the electroshock therapy.
The former Disney star finally realized that "there’s nothing wrong with me" and that he didn’t need to continue with the conversion therapy.
He was working on a play that reflected his own life at that time. "I think that was the therapy I actually needed because I got the experience of what it was like to have a family not only love me but celebrate me and really accept me," he explained.
The 'Shake It Up' star highlighted that he still experiences some "side effects" from the conversion shock therapy, and wanted to share his story in case others were going through the same situation.
