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. 

As a result of his “therapeutic” experiences, Peter 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; 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. Canada’s federal ban on conversion therapy passed into criminal law in January 2022.

Peter is an award-winning writer whose essays and short memoir have appeared in Quillette, Huffington Post, Xtra, Maclean's, The Advocate, New York Tyrant, The Gay and Lesbian Review / Worldwide, Gay Times, Opium (winner of their 2009 500-word memoir contest), The Q Review, Manhattan Book Review, Brevity, and Seattle Lesbian, among others. The Inheritance of Shame: A Memoir (2017) was awarded the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal for LGBT Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Publishing Triangle Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction. He is a recipient of 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 Peter’s first book.

Reach out to Peter through the below contact page.

CONTACT PETER

If you’d like to get in touch, feel free to email Peter at: gajdics@proton.me.