Former 'Ex-Gay' Lears Denounce 'Conversn Therapy' In A New Documentary : NPR

Contents:

• ‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ HAS GONE AWAY. WHY ARE GOVERNMENTS TRYG TO STOP IT?
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• NETFLIX’S ‘PRAY AWAY’ DOCUMENTARY WILL REMD YOU THAT GAY CONVERSN IS STILL GOG ON
• ‘THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST’ REVIEW: GAY-CONVERSN DRAMA IS TIMELY, TOO TIMID
• THIS TEENAGER HAS BEEN FORCED TO A GAY NVERSN MP WH NO PE
• 'PRAYG THE GAY AWAY': TRMA SURVIVORS CSA TO BAN NVERSN THERAPY
• CONVERSN THERAPY IS "TORTURE": LGBT SURVIVORS ARE FIGHTG TO BAN "PRAY THE GAY AWAY" MPS
• 5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP

‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ HAS GONE AWAY. WHY ARE GOVERNMENTS TRYG TO STOP IT?

CAMP FYERFLYALBERTA, CANADAAGES: 14-24Camp fYrefly is Canada’s only natnal learship retreat for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, two-spir, asexual, tersex, queer, qutng, and allied youth.

THE TEN OAKS PROJECTONTARIO, CANADAAGES: 8-17Camp Ten Oaks is a one-week sleep-away mp for children and youth om 2SLGBTQ+ (two spir, lbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer) inti, fai, and muni.

“I was a closeted gay boy that other boys tnted endlsly—now I had to live wh a dozen of them a b for a week? A lifelong softball player, she once tght a gay man at mp how to throw a ball for the first time his life—and has turn gamely taken stctn om a drag queen on how to walk high urse, sporty queer men and stiletto-lovg queer women are jt as wele at Camp Camp, Long adds. Exod Internatnal, evangelilism’s flagship ex-gay mistry, shut down 2013 after former lear Alan Chambers said had ed pa and harm to too many people and that more than 99 percent of those who’d sought help there hadn’t actually experienced an orientatn change.

FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY

While mistri cludg Exod Internatnal and Foc on the Fay ed to preach that homosexual sire should be elimated, most evangelil church, pastors, and mental health profsnals today emphasize chasty amid sir that might last a lifetime.

Even the Nashville Statement, a 14-pot manifto by the plementarian Council of Biblil Manhood and Womanhood, matas that homosexual sire may never change.

It's a movement that's born out of a larger culture of homophobia and transphobia that still persists the majory of Christian church today. It wasn't until the suici of his iend, who was also part of the "ex-gay" movement, that he reevaluated everythg. Interview highlights clu extend web-only answers and have been eded for length and clary: Interview Highlights Thomas on how he joed the "ex-gay" movement and Exod Internatnal I was out of the closet the '80s.

NETFLIX’S ‘PRAY AWAY’ DOCUMENTARY WILL REMD YOU THAT GAY CONVERSN IS STILL GOG ON

They also had a group for the gays, and unrneath all of that olns there was this toxic theology that said that you need to overe homosexualy.

‘THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST’ REVIEW: GAY-CONVERSN DRAMA IS TIMELY, TOO TIMID

Stolakis on what the ex-gay and nversn therapy movement looks like today Conversn therapy and the ex-LGBTQ movement has always been practiced lolly.

It's bee very lennial-driven bee there are younger people who've grown up homophobic and transphobic environments who are ready and willg to take the place of people like Randy. Unrver at a so-lled gay nversn mpABC News' Brian Ross tak to plac that many claim no longer exist -- Christian mistri or mps where gay teens are sent by parents who want their children to change their 10, 2017. The first thg that Netflix’s Pray Away documentary do is remd viewers that gay nversn therapy is not a thg of the past.

Dgs, alhol, homosexualy.

THIS TEENAGER HAS BEEN FORCED TO A GAY NVERSN MP WH NO PE

It’s shockgly siar to the ttimony given by the lears of the ex-gay movement over thirty years ago, several of whom are featured Pray Away after leavg the movement and formally apologizg to the LGBTQ muny. John Plk, for stance, was the poster child for the “former homosexual” who succsfully nverted to the straight liftyle.

He appeared wh his wife Anne on the ver of Newsweek magaze 1998, and both of them appeared on talk show after talk show to reunt how both of them were gay, but ma a nsc effort to change.

'PRAYG THE GAY AWAY': TRMA SURVIVORS CSA TO BAN NVERSN THERAPY

Plk soon joed the board of the Christian anti-homosexualy group known as Exod Internatnal, which was found 1976 and disband 2013.

Bee I was dishont, ed people the dience—people that were stgglg wh homosexualy or had gay feelgs—to feel like, ‘There mt be somethg wrong wh me, bee I’m not like him.

'” Plk left Exod 2003, three years after he was photographed gog to a gay bar. (Plk’s wife Anne cled to be terviewed for the documentary and ntu to spread anti-gay msagg as the head of a new Christian ex-gay mistry.

CONVERSN THERAPY IS "TORTURE": LGBT SURVIVORS ARE FIGHTG TO BAN "PRAY THE GAY AWAY" MPS

Her story is particularly tragic—after g out to her mom at 14, she was forced to see a man named Ricky Chelette who ran another relig ex-gay therapy anizatn lled Livg Hope. Rogers fally left the ex-gay movement after bearg wns to an emotnal, televised group therapy ssn 2013, which survivors of the ex-gay movement unload their trma onto Exod print Alan Chambers. Chambers, too, was so shaken by the stori shared by the “ex-ex-gays” that he and others disband Exod that year, issug a public apology to the LGBTQ muny.

You n’t help but wonr if McCall, like the ex-gay lears before him, will ever look back on that phone ll and acknowledge how much damage he likely ed. ‘The Mistn of Cameron Post’ Review: Gay-Conversn Drama Is Timely, Too Timid.

5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP

Sundance jury-prize wner about youth sent to "pray the gay away" mps is heartfelt, tenr and too close to an 'Afterschool Special' for fort. What a shame that this well-meang look at the absurdy of gay nversn mps — won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year — lacks the teeth to make s pots stick.

Danforth, The Mistn of Cameron Post is set 1993, before giant stris gay civil liberti such as the legal right of same-sex upl to marry all 50 stat had kicked . She’s quickly sent off by her relig guardian to God’s Promise, a mp where she n be -gayed before ’s too late. Cred Akhavan and -wrer Cecilia Fgiuele for dodgg riture when alg wh the anizatn’s cluels unselors, the formerly gay Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.