f you use Rails 5, you can do ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(value).

In Rails 4.2, use ActiveRecord::Type::Boolean.new.type_cast_from_user(value).

    Rails 5 Source: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/5-1-stable/activemodel/lib/active_model/type/boolean.rb
  
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('t')     # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('true')  # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(true)    # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('1')     # => true
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('f')     # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('0')     # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast('false') # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(false)   # => false
ActiveModel::Type::Boolean.new.cast(nil)     # => nil