Truth in Love, the provocative solo piece written and performed by Walter Egbert, takes its name from a now-infamous ad which was part of a larger 1998 anti-gay, pro-conversion therapy media campaign by a coalition of certain right-wing organizations.  The multi-million-dollar campaign, which promised to “cure” gay people through a specific religious pathway and sheer will power, was a deliberate change of method for the anti-gay movement.  As acceptance for the gay community slowly increased through the 1990’s, the movement’s overtly hatefully homophobic techniques– complete with liberal use of words like “Sodomite” and a recurrent reminder that AIDS was God’s punishment for being gay– kept gradually increasing in vitriol until they finally began being seen as distasteful by the general population.  The newer campaigns offered a more so-called “compassionate” message, with savvy sayings such as, “It’s not about hate.  It’s about HOPE!” “Truth in Love” and other full-print ads were published in several nationally recognized newspapers.   Although it still exists in 2024, conversion therapy has widely been discredited as a pseudoscience:  ineffective at its most benign, and psychologically damaging at its worst. Many of the “players” involved in the movement were subsequently exposed as frauds.  It’s impossible to know exactly how many individuals were affected by ads like “Truth in Love”, or exactly HOW those people were affected.  Yet, for Egbert, seeing the ad in The New York Times in 1998 was something of a “last straw”– a cruel insult to his own 30-year struggle at trying to “repair” something that wasn’t broken to begin with. 

As part of the annual Gotham Storytelling Festival, Walt Egbert’s Truth in Love takes the audience back to the performer’s childhood.  This suburban kid knew, like so many other LGBTQ’s who describe their feelings retroactively, that he was “different”, even though he couldn’t quite put it into words.  For Egbert, who was raised in a conservative Catholic family in strongly Republican Nassau County, one of the only available sources of information in pre-internet 1976 was… The Catholic Encyclopedia (the version of which, he pointed out, interestingly did NOT say anything about homosexuality.).  There was cognitive dissonance at being brought up in a Catholic environment which idealized “purity”, yet having nascent same-sex attraction.  In college, Egbert found himself involved with the controversial organization Opus Dei (translated from Latin as “Work of God”)– a pathway that would color his life for years to come.  For those in the audience (like me…) who had never even heard of Opus Dei, Egbert’s story was not only fascinating but forcefully informative– not to mention funny and ultimately life-affirming as well, particularly at its conclusion.  The intimate setting of the Under St. Marks Theater served this piece very well.  

Truth in Love packs a wallop into its 50-minute running time.  It is a deeply personal story, but also an important look into a time period of LGBTQ history at large which is vitally necessary to remember… and vitally necessary to learn from as well. 

As part of Frigid New York, The Gotham Storytelling Festival brings together diverse storytellers to do what they do best.  Now in its twelfth year, Gotham is curated by Brad Lawrence and Erez Ziv.  Visit www.Frigid,NYC to stay updated on all things Frigid!