Sumith Prasad
Based on Garrard Conley’s eponymous memoir, Joel Edgerton’s biographical film ‘Boy Erased’ revolves around the life of Jared Eamons (based on Garrard), a young gay man who takes part in Love in Action’s gay conversion therapy assessment program to get “converted” to a heterosexual. Jared gets shamed by Victor Sykes, the head of the organization, and other members of LIA throughout the program for being gay. The film progresses through Jared’s efforts to lead his life as a gay man and attempts to escape from Victor’s organization. Since the film only sheds light on Garrard’s earlier part of life, the viewers might be wondering whether he is married. Well, let us provide the answer!
Garrard Conley’s Married Life
Garrard Conley is married to Shahab Yunus, a Pakistan-born software engineer based in New York City. The couple currently lives together in New York City as well. Garrard has also chosen to keep the majority of his life with Shahab private. The author hasn’t opened up about how he met and eventually married his husband. In Garrard’s own words, Shahab is “reclusive” and the latter doesn’t always allow the former to share his pictures. Still, although not regularly, the author does share glimpses of his life with his husband through his social media accounts.
“I’m interrupting my hiatus to announce that my husband is very cute. Here we are in 2017. Shahab is reclusive and will hate this,” Garrard shared in 2020 along with an image of the couple. It is also evident that Shahab is a constant source of support to Garrard, who continues to fight for queer rights and raise awareness concerning gay conversion therapies. While Edgerton’s film was being filmed, Garrard and Shahab did visit the filming sets, especially since the author was heavily consulted by the actor-director.
I’m interrupting my hiatus to announce that my husband is very cute. Here we are in 2017. Shahab is reclusive and will hate this. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YzXE0RFpvC
— Garrard Conley (@gayrodcon) July 28, 2020
Garrard and Shahab also watched the first cut of the film together. “New release date for BOY (Nov 2!) seems as good an occasion as any to post this super hot pic of my husband @shahabyunus (far right), director @joeledgerton & producer/actor @davidjosephcraig right before we watched a first cut of the film together back when it was still cold outside,” the former shared at the time. Shahab also played a part in the creation of ‘All the World Beside,’ Garrard’s first work of fiction.
“The book [‘All the World Beside’] is made of impossibilities made possible: queer Puritans and Capital-G God. Seven years ago, Shahab challenged me to write something truly ambitious: a queer love story set in Puritan New England. My father also challenged me to write “the truth” about God. Hundreds of sources and a lot of imagination later, the result is a book I hope challenges assumptions (mine as well) about how we talk about the past and the present while making way for the possibility of the historical queer Christian and all of the complications that entails,” Garrard shared about the book.
Garrard is currently working as an assistant professor of creative writing at Kennesaw State University, located in Kennesaw, Georgia, upon joining the institution in July 2020. He joined the institution after receiving a Master’s degree in creative writing from Brooklyn College, New York City. The author regularly writes about gay conversion therapy programs in publications such as CNN. He is also at the forefront of the fight for queer rights. “We’re getting so close to the finish line that I’m becoming more radical and more of an activist each day,” Garrard told Esquire in 2018.
Read More: Boy Erased: Is Love in Action a Real Organization? Does it Still Exist?
