Each month, we profile someone connected to CBRC, featuring them in The Update, our monthly newsletter. Check out the May 2025 newsletter here.
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Sandra Carbone (she/her) is a member of CBRC’s Coalition Advisory Committee, as part of our Intersectoral Action Fund project to establish a national coalition to end conversion practices in Canada. She is also the Executive Board Member of Fondation Émergence, a Quebec-based organization committed to raising awareness, educating, and advocating for the rights of people of diverse sexual and gender identities.
Sandra was brought up in an Evangelical Christian family where her father, a pastor, was known for his TV and radio shows promoting the idea that queer people could be 'healed,' as well as his leadership of a conversion ‘therapy’ group. Growing up in this environment, Sandra kept her queerness quiet, spending her teenage years praying to be ‘healed.’ After becoming financially independent from her family, she decided to come out. And when she did, she was shunned.
“Nobody from my past would talk to me anymore, so I just tried to have the best life I possibly could.” Sandra shares. Leaving that community, she eventually found a partner and went on to have children. “When I had kids, it woke me up,” she says. “I realized I had a responsibility to put out another voice in the world.” With her father and other public religious figures perpetuating homophobia, transphobia, and harmful ideas about the supposed efficacy of conversion practices, Sandra felt she had to be equally as loud.
In this vein, Sandra participated in the documentary Gai(e), tu ne seras point, available on Crave, which explores the after-effects of conversion therapy on survivors. The producers of the documentary attempted to get comments from her father and although he didn’t participate, his church makes a comment at the end of the film that conversion therapy goes against their values—a step in the right direction for faith leaders, in Sandra’s opinion.
Sandra has been vocal about the harms of conversion practices for many years and, about a year ago, her father asked her to coffee and to have a conversation. “I went, because at this point I thought that if we all stay in our own corners, we're not going to evolve,” she says. The decision to go wasn’t easy, but she felt she was able. “I proceeded to have the hard conversations. Things were not perfect at all, but we definitely were able to grow from them. I was very pleased to read the public announcement from the church's leaders recognizing that conversion therapy does not represent Christian values.”
Sandra continues to voice her concerns about conversion practices, as well as going for coffee with her father to further the discussion. “Doing this work helps me realize how far I’ve come,” Sandra shares. “In my teenage years, I couldn’t see the end—it felt impossible, especially being surrounded by adults that I couldn’t safely confide in.” Now, as an adult, she feels much more compassionate towards others, no matter where they are in their journeys and feelings towards 2S/LGBTQIA+ communities.
As a member of CBRC’s Coalition Advisory Committee, Sandra finds it crucial to keep alive a perspective that counters conversion practices. “This work is important because it gives us a unified voice, no matter our religious backgrounds,” she says. To hear more about Sandra and other survivors’ perspectives, please join us on June 19 at our upcoming webinar, What’s Next in the Fight Against Conversion Practices in Canada? Registration details will be shared in the coming weeks!
Photo: Sandra Carbone
“We all can grow immensely if we take the time, and if we open our hearts..”
