Author and Advocate Tim Schraeder Rodriguez Marks Conversion Therapy Dropout Launch with Sold-Out Stonewall Event, Oprah Daily Feature, and National Streaming TV Debut, As Newly Released Vatican Report Criticizes Conversion Therapy
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2026 — This week, author and advocate Tim Schraeder Rodriguez officially released Conversion Therapy Dropout: A Queer Story of Faith and Belonging with a powerful week of cultural moments that bring the book’s core message to life: that survival is collective, and belonging is something we build together.
The week opened with a standing-room-only reception at the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center — a symbolic and historic backdrop for a story rooted in both personal reckoning and community resilience. Moderated by acclaimed recording artist Morgxn, the conversation moved beyond memoir into a broader dialogue about faith, identity, and the systems that continue to shape LGBTQ lives. The evening culminated in a surprise live performance by Morgxn, who delivered two songs that left the room visibly moved, transforming the event into something closer to a communal release than a traditional book launch.
Event Photos and Video HERE for working press
Credit: Varner Creative
This week, Oprah Daily published a deeply personal essay by Rodriguez titled "My Job Was to Shape Megachurches’ Identities." Meanwhile, I Was Hiding My Own, which explored his experience as a gay evangelical navigating faith, identity, and survival, bringing his story to one of the largest mainstream audiences in the country and reinforcing the book’s resonance far beyond traditional advocacy spaces.
The launch also arrives amid a rapidly evolving cultural and institutional conversation around conversion therapy as a newly released report from the Vatican draws global attention for its unexpected criticism of conversion therapy, including the inclusion of testimony from a gay Catholic. The report marks a notable shift in tone from one of the world’s most influential religious institutions, underscoring the very systems of faith, power, and accountability that Rodriguez interrogates in Conversion Therapy Dropout.
Carrying that momentum forward, Rodriguez made his first live, in-studio national streaming television appearance this morning on NBC News Now, joining NBC’s Joe Fryer to discuss the book and the urgent cultural conversation it demands. In the interview, Rodriguez spoke to the ongoing reality of conversion therapy in the United States, not as a relic of the past, but as a practice that continues to evolve, rebrand, and impact LGBTQ people across the country.
Conversion Therapy Dropout arrives as both memoir and cultural intervention. Drawing from nearly a decade spent subjected to conversion therapy, Rodriguez interrogates the religious and institutional frameworks that allowed such practices to persist, while also exploring what it means to reconstruct identity, faith, and self-worth in their aftermath. The book challenges the notion that conversion therapy is behind us, arguing instead that it remains embedded in systems that continue to frame queerness as something to be corrected.
“Conversion therapy didn’t just try to change my sexual orientation. It tried to convince me that the truest parts of me were the parts that needed to be fixed. This book is about naming that harm out loud and choosing, finally, not to let those systems define who I am or who I believe God created me to be.” — Tim Schraeder Rodriguez
Rodriguez, whose work has appeared in TIME, the BBC, Oprah Daily, The Advocate, and Religion News Service, has emerged as a leading voice at the intersection of faith, culture, and LGBTQ rights. His work consistently bridges personal narrative with systemic analysis, positioning lived experience as both testimony and evidence.
See Tim’s full press kit HERE
The book features a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Shauna Niequist, who describes the work as a story that can reshape conversations within faith communities and point toward a more just and inclusive future.
After stepping away from church leadership, Rodriguez co-founded Church Clarity, an organization dedicated to helping LGBTQ people find affirming faith communities. Through his writing, advocacy, and public engagement, he continues to push for accountability, transparency, and transformation within institutions that have historically caused harm.
As the launch week makes clear, Conversion Therapy Dropout is not simply a book release — it is a call to reckon with the systems that shaped the past and to reimagine what belonging can look like moving forward.
Conversion Therapy Dropout: A Queer Story of Faith and Belonging is available now.
BOOK DETAILS
Conversion Therapy Dropout: A Queer Story of Faith and Belonging
By Tim Schraeder Rodriguez
Hardcover | 264 pages
Publication Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9798889835431
Price: $27.99
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PRESS CONTACT:
Tony Morrison
