LGBTQ Nation wonders if Sam Brinton's shocking conversion story was 'too good to be true'

Brett T. | 7:21 PM on December 07, 2022

As Twitchy reported last month, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition Sam Brinton was charged with felony theft of luggage and placed on leave. The story probably wouldn’t have caught on if Brinton, who uses they/them pronouns, hadn’t made such a splash as one of the Biden administration’s proud LGBTQ hires:

It’s official. As of June 19th, I now serve my nation as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy. pic.twitter.com/zLq3Bf97X2

— Sam Brinton (@sbrinton) June 29, 2022

Brinton, who calls themself a “nuclear nerd” in their Twitter profile, also includes that they’re a survivor of conversion therapy.

LGBTQ Nation is now wondering if Brinton’s horrifying tale of going through conversion therapy was “too good to be true.”

Has Sam Brinton’s story always been too good to be true? https://t.co/TCB6kuuiZM

— LGBTQ Nation (@lgbtqnation) December 7, 2022

Wayne Besen writes:

As an LGBTQ+ activist fighting against conversion therapy with my organization Truth Wins Out and the author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth, I had hoped to work with Brinton to expose the harm of conversion therapy. Their story was compelling and could influence public opinion against “ex-gay” practices, which has been my life’s mission.

I excitedly reached out to Brinton, and they were oddly inaccessible, communicating indirectly through intermediary LGBTQ+ activists in the Boston area, where they were attending MIT. The reason for Brinton’s scarcity had to do with two simple questions I had asked them: “Who was your conversion therapist, and in which facility did the therapy occur?”

This basic inquiry was critically important for two reasons. First, to share Brinton’s story, we had to verify if it was true. Second, Brinton’s testimony involved a torture center where hideous abuses were presumably still occurring against children at least as young as 11. If such a place existed, there was a moral imperative to rapidly identify the abusive therapist and contact the authorities to stop the atrocities.

Why was Sam Brinton the only survivor of conversion therapy I’ve encountered since 1998 who refused to answer these questions? Not only had every other survivor provided this information willingly, but they were eager to fight back and shut down their own therapist or “ex-gay” minister.