A Maltese gay man has opened up about the day he met the pastor of a controversial religious community. What he alleges was a disturbing encounter where they tried to “convert” him.

George Vella Bencini sat with Lovin Malta to recount his experience, and it all started in a meeting with River of Love pastor Gordon Manché and his wife who allegedly tried to convince the young man to endure conversion therapy in return for meeting his biological siblings.

“At that moment I thought to myself, ‘get the fuck out of here.'”

George was adopted when he was just a year old, and as he grew older his curiosity about his biological roots began to develop.

By 18 years old, he and his mother were looking into his biological family and they discovered that he had seven siblings and a biological mother who put him up for adoption due to a troubling home life that involved drugs and prostitution.

“She met the wrong person, got into the wrong things, and had a lot of children,” he explained before gladly admitting that she’s now clean. 

So, George went to meet his biological mother and while doing so, he also met his sister, Karen, who he now has a very strong relationship with.

From then, George continued to find and connect with his other siblings. By 2015, he learned about a brother and a sister whom he had never met before.

“I found out that my brother and sister were adopted together, and by then, they were already 18. So I learned about them, got an address, and showed up at their door.”

His sister Karen joined him, too.

While admitting that in hindsight he could have sent a letter, he explained that at that moment he didn’t really think of it, and since the siblings were over 18 at the time, he wasn’t legally required to either.

The siblings’ adoptive parents were prompted to the door by a knock and when they realised what was going on, “they freaked out.”

“They questioned what we were doing there and how we got their address” and after noticing how concerned they were, he said he didn’t need to see the young adults just yet.

However, he did offer to share numbers so that they could set up a meeting and talk a bit before George and Karen met with their other two siblings.

And so they did.

“We met on a Saturday morning at the waterfront hotel and when Karen and I walked into the bar we saw our sibling’s adoptive parents, a family friend, and two other people.”

It turns out that those two people were evangelical pastor Gordon Manche and his wife Mariella Blackman.

The members of River of Love – who included the sibling’s adoptive parents – began fiercely questioning George and Karen, asking about their intentions to meet the two young adults.

After repeating that the siblings “don’t go to Paceville, don’t drink alcohol, don’t have tattoos (unlike George who had one showing on his leg which seemingly caused concern), and don’t do drugs” they ultimately said that the pair could meet the siblings under a few conditions.

Firstly, they allegedly instructed Karen and George that they would have to join the River of Love and donate 10% of their wages.

Then, Mariella pulled George aside and started speaking about his sexuality.

“Well, you’re homosexual so obviously, we would have to convert you,” she allegedly told George, to which he replied, “I don’t want to convert – I’m gay, and I’m proud of who I am.”

However, according to George, Mariella didn’t stop there.

“She then asked me what I think about when I’m ‘playing with myself’,” the man claimed. 

“At that point, I thought ‘OK, I need to get the fuck out of here’.”

So he got up, left the table, and went to sit near his sister who had Gordon and the adoptive parents around her.

“When I sat down I heard the pastor and the mother ask Karen how she could have lived with her mother when she had led a ‘sinful life’.”

They told Karen that she is now stained because of her mother’s past life and that the two other siblings cannot be a part of it, George explained. 

“At this point, Karen was squeezing my hand and saying let’s get out of here; she was about to cry.”

After this disturbing ordeal, George went home to do some research about the River of Love which, at that time, wasn’t as widely known.

“After I researched them I was shocked, I couldn’t believe that these things were still happening,” he said referring to conversion therapy.

Yet, their story doesn’t end there.

A year or two later, Karen received a message from one of the two siblings who wanted to meet without the knowledge of her parents. 

When the three siblings met, they learned that the woman was “forced to get married” at around 20 years old and had a child with a man she didn’t love.

“She is now divorced and engaged to a woman.”

“When she came out to her family they threw her out and excommunicated her from River of Love,” George said.

This ordeal happened a year before conversion therapy was made illegal. However, the community that conducted it and advocated for it is still alive and kicking. And that’s not all: some of its members are still embroiled in conversion therapy-related allegations.  

River of Love musician Matthew Grech as well as two Maltese journalists were charged with promoting “gay conversion therapy” on the strength of a report filed by top EU official Silvan Agius and two others.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time Mariella has been involved in conversion therapy allegations. Back in 2015, a gay man claimed to have attended two counseling sessions with the warranted psychologist who was “treating him for his homosexuality.”

If you have ever been offered or were made to suffer through conversion therapy and want to share your story, reach out to [email protected]