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Jeff Goldblum on his father’s “cruel” behavior towards his gay brother
Actor Jeff Goldblum has opened up about his family and early life in an interview with The Times Magazine in the UK.
The Jurassic World star, 67, reveals that his father did not respond well to learning that Jeff’s older brother, Lee, was gay. Not only did the older man keep it a secret, but he tried to have his son’s sexuality changed by forcing him to undergo so-called conversion therapy.
He says his father, Harold, had a “traditional masculine sense of himself.”
“He didn’t tell the rest of us [about Lee’s sexuality] … Sent him to a therapist in order to ‘fix him’. It was all secret. That’s not so nourishing.”
“My dad was, without knowing why, conspicuously cruel to [Lee] at times.”
Related: WATCH: Jeff Goldblum gyrating for a crowd of gay partiers is a mood
His brother entered medical school but dropped out to join the army. He later became a taxi driver.
Goldblum says his brother went on to experience challenges throughout his life, including, “physical ailments, [being] overweight, pharmaceuticals abuse and self-medication issues”. He ended up moving back in with his parents and living with them for the last couple of decades of his life. He has since died.
Goldblum had another brother, Rick, who died at the age of 23 from kidney failure. He also has a sister, Pamela.
Related: Thanks to Massachusetts, 32% of U.S. states now ban conversion therapy. But here come the courts…
Some counselors and religious groups employ the controversial practice of so-called “conversion therapy” to try and convert people from being gay and bisexual towards heterosexuality. There is zero scientific evidence it works.
However, rather than helping people, studies have found such treatments can cause great mental health problems for those subjected to them.
Many respected psychiatric associations have condemned the practice and around a third of states in the US have banned it being administered to minors. The practice is banned outright in a handful of countries, including Brazil, Malta, and Uruguay.
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