Netflix’s ‘Pray Away’ Documentary Will Remd You That Gay Conversn Is Still Gog On | Decir

Contents:

• 5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• ‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ HAS GONE AWAY. WHY ARE GOVERNMENTS TRYG TO STOP IT?
• NETFLIX’S ‘PRAY AWAY’ DOCUMENTARY WILL REMD YOU THAT GAY CONVERSN IS STILL GOG ON
• ‘PRAY AWAY’ REVIEW: ATONG FOR AN ANTI-GAY STANCE
• IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?
• CAN CATHOLICS “PRAY AWAY THE GAY?”
• THIS TEENAGER HAS BEEN FORCED TO A GAY NVERSN MP WH NO PE

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

"Wh my first weeks therapy, I was told every other gay person on Earth had been executed....

By the end of the so-lled 'treatments, ' I believed the ernment was lookg for me bee the gays had brought AIDS to Ameri and that I now had this disease ragg through me. " That is, they assumed that bee he was gay, 's bee his ntrollg mother and adbeat dad had nfed and irreparably trmatized his genals. In fact, they uldn't fd any trma to blame Sam's homosexualy on at all.

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

4 They Physilly Torture You For Beg Gay.

Later ssns would clu pper heatg ils, needl my fgers, and electric shocks, " all while Sam was shown gay porn. Antos777/iStock/Getty Imag Of urse, no one explaed why they had a stockpile of gay porn on hand. Obvly, spe the old sayg, you n't "heatg-il the gay away.

In fact, he got so ed to reprsg his te self that, even after he me out, he wasn't entirely sure how to be: When he got to llege and first enuntered the gay muny, he immediately "me out a ball of glter. " He embraced a sparkly, Freddy Mercury-stage-show-liftyle bee he saw a bunch of out-and-proud homosexuals and thought that was how was done. "I'm very flamboyant, and that's partly bee of how I was troduced to the ia of other gay men existg....

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

I found out what a gay person looked like, and realized that was how I was supposed to act.

2 There's A Reason Some Gays Are So "Flamboyant". Go to a hardware store on the day of the gay pri para and you might hear an old du wh a beer gut lament, "Why do them gays have to be so flamboyant?

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

The vast majory of homosexuals are -- shocker -- jt people. But if you see somebody sportg an outlandish stume, 's not about makg homosexualy look fun to help "turn kids gay" (if Sam's gayns uld survive electroshock torture, then we're pretty sure another kid's straightns n survive a few paras and some sequ boas); 's about showg closeted gay kids that homosexualy isn't tomatilly a lifetime of misery. 1 Both Fah And Homosexualy Can Be Equally Intolerant.

I'm the middle ground: From some fah muni, I'm attacked for beg gay. From some gay muni, I'm attacked as beg Christian. Fally some mon ground between tolerant homosexuals and tolerant Christians: tolerance!

‘PRAY AWAY’ REVIEW: ATONG FOR AN ANTI-GAY STANCE

For more sir perspectiv, check out 5 Reali of Beg Gay a Country Where It's Illegal and 6 Shockg Reali of the Secret 'Troubled Teen Indtry'. 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.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?

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. 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. 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. 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.

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. The first thg that Netflix’s Pray Away documentary do is remd viewers that gay nversn therapy is not a thg of the past.

CAN CATHOLICS “PRAY AWAY THE GAY?”

Dgs, alhol, homosexualy. 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.

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

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. 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. 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.