Photo by Erich Saide Photographer
Peter Gajdics (pronounced “Guy-ditch”) was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, to immigrant parents from Europe. Gajdics knew from an early age that he was gay, but, for myriad reasons, that truth only seemed to cause him pain. In his early 20s, while struggling with an overwhelming sense of shame, Gajdics turned to a local psychiatrist for help. Within months he found himself embroiled in a bizarre sort of conversion therapy that attempted to “cure” him of his homosexuality. The Inheritance of Shame documents Gajdics’ six-year journey through, and eventually out of, this therapy; the legal battle with his former psychiatrist; his complicated family history; and his attempts to reclaim his life—and, most especially, his truth.
As a result of his “therapeutic” experiences, Peter has advocated for legal bans on conversion therapy for over 20 years. In 2018, Peter helped initiate the first municipal ban on conversion therapy in Canada, when he worked with his home city of Vancouver on a bylaw to prohibit businesses from practicing the discredited treatment in the city limits. At a City Council meeting on June 6, 2018, Peter spoke about his experiences undergoing what he characterized as “torture,” a “human rights violation,” after which City Counsellors unanimously approved the new bylaw. In December 2020, Peter provided testimony before Canada’s House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in support of the criminalization of conversion therapy across the country. In December 2021, the federal bill to ban conversion therapy nationally finally passed into Canadian law.
Peter is an award-winning writer whose essays and short memoir have appeared in Quillette, Huffington Post, Xtra, Maclean's, Advocate, New York Tyrant, The Gay and Lesbian Review / Worldwide, Gay Times, Opium, Manhattan Book Review, Brevity, and Seattle Lesbian, among others. He is a recipient of several writing grants from Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council, a fellowship from The Summer Literary Seminars, and an alumnus of Lambda Literary Foundation’s “Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices.” The Inheritance of Shame: A Memoir is his first book.
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