Netflix's 'Pray Away' Is A Humanizg Look At 'Gay Conversn' Therapy Survivors | HuffPost Entertament

Contents:

• IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?
• ‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ HAS GONE AWAY. WHY ARE GOVERNMENTS TRYG TO STOP IT?
• 5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP
• PRAY THE GAY AWAY® THE MIL
• PRAY THE GAY AWAY
• PRAY AWAY GO DEEP INTO THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT THAT BEGAN THE '70S
• ‘PRAY AWAY’ REVIEW: ATONG FOR AN ANTI-GAY STANCE
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• PRAY AWAY: THE HARROWG TE STORY OF THE "EX-GAY" MUNY THE FILM
• NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' LOOKS BEHD THE CURTA OF THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT
• CAN CATHOLICS “PRAY AWAY THE GAY?”
• NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' IS A HUMANIZG LOOK AT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY SURVIVORS
• 'PRAY THE GAY AWAY' MISTRY CLOS, LEAR APOLOGIZ TO LGBT MUNY

IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?

The revelatns surroundg Marc Bachmann's psychotherapy practice along wh his statements equatg gay people to barbarians reflect the eply held view among too many people that homosexualy is a psychologil or moral choice that n be altered and ed should be. As someone who profs to help gays and lbians bee "straight, " Dr. There are several nservative relig anizatns, like Exod Internatnal and Homosexuals Anonymo, that claim to have helped people change their sexual orientatn through prayer, unselg, or a batn of both.

Moreover, there are licensed mental health profsnals who practice what are lled reparative or nversn therapi signed to make gay people heterosexual.

The bt-known group of such clicians is the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), led by psychologist Joseph Nilosi. He and his followers claim that gays and lbians suffer om a damagg blend of childhood trma, shamg their fai of orig, and chronic unmet needs for love and affectn om their same-sex parents.

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

Reparative therapy supposedly helps gay clients bee heterosexual by workg wh them to amelrate toxic feelgs stemmg om their damaged childhoods. Robert Spzer, a proment psychiatrist who, oddly enough, led the charge to remove homosexualy as a disease om the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual, had unrtaken rearch wh 200 women and men who unrwent reparative therapy and believed themselv to be "cured" of homosexualy, as evinced by their abily to engage sexual relatns wh the oppose sex, marry heterosexually, and nceive children.

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

In fact, there are many reports of people unrgog treatments offered by ex-gay mistri who not only return to homosexualy but have also been trmatized by this so-lled therapy. The real diseas are homophobia and heterosexism, not homosexualy. It is important to regnize that the great majory of psychotherapy profsnals argue vociferoly that such "treatment" is uhil bee homosexualy is not an illns — rather the "illns" is our tolerance of sexual and genr behavrs fallg outsi rtrictive societal norms.

I also tell clients that reparative and nversn therapi, bis beg effective, are psychologilly harmful to gays and lbians, which is another reason I do not remend them and will not assist clients procurg such treatment.

People like Marc and Michele Bachmann believe that acceptg and even celebratg gay and lbian people will evably lead to the moral cle of our society. The Film Will Premiere at the Tribe Film Ftival on June 16Feature-length documentary Pray Away, which exam the endurg harm of nversn therapy and the “pray the gay away” movement, is g to Away will have s world premiere at the Tribe Film Ftival on June 16 and will go on to play Doc10. Scully, Alexis Mart WoodallLogle: Former lears of the "pray the gay away" movement ntend wh the aftermath unleashed by their actns, while a survivor seeks healg and acceptance om more than a of trma.

PRAY THE GAY AWAY® THE MIL

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.

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

PRAY THE GAY AWAY

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.

PRAY AWAY GO DEEP INTO THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT THAT BEGAN THE '70S

" 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. Later ssns would clu pper heatg ils, needl my fgers, and electric shocks, " all while Sam was shown gay porn.

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

Antos777/iStock/Getty Imag Of urse, no one explaed why they had a stockpile of gay porn on hand. 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.... I found out what a gay person looked like, and realized that was how I was supposed to act.

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

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? 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.

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

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'. Theater Arts Guild prents the world premiere of Pray the Gay Away®, a ser mil edy. Pray the Gay Away® tak place 1980’s Monka, Mnota and shows the llisn urse of two boys beg subjected to the ntroversial practice of gay nversn therapy, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod that says “homosexual behavr is trsilly sful”, a Youth Pri LGBTQ support group fightg for human rights, and the lol muny ught the middle.

PRAY AWAY: THE HARROWG TE STORY OF THE "EX-GAY" MUNY THE FILM

For his fourth full-length mil, Conrad Askland, former mic director of Cirque du Soleil and Rock of Ag, has traed his satiril missile system on the cultural, polil and theologil forc that surround the paful world of gay nversn therapy and the “pray away the gay” movement. Relig, polil and cultural attus surroundg homosexualy and our unrstandg of human rights.

I have followed Zach and Michael Zakar on social media (Instagram and Twter) for some time now and was terted readg their story for some wasn't a look to nversn mps, but was an enlighteng glimpse to the liv of two gay people growg up a relig fay wh an overbearg 2 books5 followersAugt 25, 2018I met the thors Michael and Zach Zakar at the Ferndale Pri here Michigan and y they are as good lookg and charmg person as they are this book! The tle immediately peeked my tert bee I too was very volved relign and saw myself as damned to hell for beg gay.

NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' LOOKS BEHD THE CURTA OF THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT

However, really, the term "pray the gay away" don't even really beg to scribe my experience.

"Pray the Gay Away"is laid out a format where we read om each brother's perspective at different ag which is pretty ol. It reads almost like a book versn of a gay Dawson's Creek or a gay "My Big Fat Greek Weddg". They nsir at pots and stggle wh at pots so you do get a taste of that stggle for sure but they really never buy to their mother's "pray the gay away" mantra.

They don't attend the "ex-gay" retreats or see "reparative therapists" (thank goodns! Rather, their story is more a g of gay-age story that leads to many fights agast their mother, and at tim each other and bigger qutns about self image as a young gay man. A film that uld change or enurage a gay young person's life.

CAN CATHOLICS “PRAY AWAY THE GAY?”

They do give some pretty hot scen the book but more or ls is g of age "gay" affairs. Is a read where you will learn the full measure of what "pray the gay away" means?

I follow them bee they’re geo and gay and happen to live my area. 6 reviews7 followersJanuary 16, 2018Good ReadThis was a nice read and very relatable for a fellow gay Arab Christian man. Read-bgraphi-memoirs read-lgbtqDecember 15, 2019This is a very good book about tw gay boys that disver their sexualy the midst of a crazy fay.

NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' IS A HUMANIZG LOOK AT 'GAY CONVERSN' THERAPY SURVIVORS

They also leave out all sorts of tails about their liv, cludg most sexual enunters or how they've grown as gay men, and the stori that are revealed seem packaged like a s. The boys are immoral and uhil, bad children, then wonr why they are still sad and unhappy--blamg on how gays are treated stead of seeg that they have ed many of their own problems. Tholicism gay lgbt 350 reviews9 followersJune 1, 2022I had the fortune of meetg the Zakar Tws at Dragn workg Jackie Cox’ booth, and got to purchase this directly om them.

This is a rehg, eye openg look on an tertg dynamic…gay tws beg raised a relig hoehold.

'PRAY THE GAY AWAY' MISTRY CLOS, LEAR APOLOGIZ TO LGBT MUNY

That asi, this was a fantastic behd-the-curtas look at what means to grow up gay a relig hoehold, and followg them on social media shows how well someone n pull through that. I appreciated gag a greater unrstandg of what is like to be a gay male. Pray the Gay Away® tak place 1980’s Monka, Mnota and shows the llisn urse of two boys beg subjected to the ntroversial practice of gay nversn therapy, the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod statement that “homosexual behavr is trsilly sful”, a Youth Pri LGBTQ support group fightg for human rights, and the lol muny ught the middle.

The new Netflix documentary Pray Away exam the Exod "ex-gay" movement that was found the '70s by five men the evangelil church who sought to pray the gay word got out about the group that was seekg to ex the "homosexual liftyle, " the men received more than 25, 000 letters om folks hopg to do the same, and spurred the formatn of Exod Internatnal, the largt and most ntroversial nversn therapy anizatn the world, acrdg to the film's synopsis for the film om executive producers Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum reads:"But lears stggled wh a secret: their own 'same-sex attractns' never went away. Focg on the dramatic journeys of former nversn therapy lears, current members, and a survivor, Pray Away chronicl the 'ex gay' movement's rise to power, persistent fluence, and the profound harm . Movi|‘Pray Away’ Review: Atong for an Anti-Gay Stance ADVERTISEMENTIn this documentary, people who had promoted the ia that sexual orientatn uld be changed exprs their AwayDirected by Kriste StolakisDocumentaryPG-131h 41mThe Netflix documentary “Pray Away” profil several people who, the public sphere and the ntext of Christiany-cloaked “nversn therapy, ” peddled the ia that homosexualy uld be changed, and who now regret the sufferg they ed.

Michael Bsee, a founr of Exod Internatnal, nsired one of the major anizatns that preached that sexual orientatn uld be changed, was both an early promoter and an early harms nversn therapy , and the tactics , aren’t news at this pot, and “Pray Away” is more tertg when foc on how most of s subjects eventually embraced gay and bisexual inti spe havg formerly been so public their homophobia. 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.