American writer and activist Garrard Conley was BOTD in 1985. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he was raised in northern Arkansas, where his father was a Baptist preacher. He spent much of his childhood and adolescence attempting to reconcile his religious faith with his budding homosexuality. He attended Lyon College in Arkansas in 2004, where he was sexually assaulted by a fellow student, who later outed Conley to his parents. Horrified, Conley’s parents sent him to the Christian ministry Love in Action to undergo conversion therapy. After two weeks of physical and psychological abuse, he persuaded his mother to remove him from the programme. He later attended Auburn University before moving to New York to study creative writing at Brooklyn College. After graduating, he moved to Europe, volunteering for the Peace Corps in Ukraine and teaching English at a high school in Bulgaria. He is best known for his 2016 memoir Boy Erased, a harrowing account of his experiences with conversion therapy and his mother’s eventual acceptance of his sexuality. A national bestseller, it was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, profiled by America’s patron saint of literature Oprah Winfrey, and adapted into a successful 2018 film starring Lucas Hedges. Shortly before the film’s release, he launched Unerased, a four-part podcast series examining the history of conversion therapy in America, which is estimated to have affected over 700,000 adults and children. Conley was heavily involved in the promotion for the film, undertaking a number of public appearances with his mother discussing his experiences. He published his first novel, All the World Beside, in 2024. Conley lives in New York City with his husband Shahab, and holds a professorship in creative writing at Kennesaw State University.