Prayer and pa: why gay nversn therapy is still legal spe dangers | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• 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?
• ‘THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST’ REVIEW: GAY-CONVERSN DRAMA IS TIMELY, TOO TIMID
• PRAYER AND PA: WHY GAY NVERSN THERAPY IS STILL LEGAL SPE DANGERS
• CONVERSN THERAPY IS "TORTURE": LGBT SURVIVORS ARE FIGHTG TO BAN "PRAY THE GAY AWAY" MPS
• THIS TEENAGER HAS BEEN FORCED TO A GAY NVERSN MP WH NO PE
• KATY PERRY SAYS SHE TRIED TO 'PRAY THE GAY AWAY' AS AN ADOLCENT
• 'PRAYG THE GAY AWAY': TRMA SURVIVORS CSA TO BAN NVERSN THERAPY
• DON’T ‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ - WE’RE ‘BORN PERFECT’
• ‘PRAY AWAY’ REVIEW: ATONG FOR AN ANTI-GAY STANCE
• NETFLIX’S ‘PRAY AWAY’ DOCUMENTARY WILL REMD YOU THAT GAY CONVERSN IS STILL GOG ON

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

PRAYER AND PA: WHY GAY NVERSN THERAPY IS STILL LEGAL SPE DANGERS

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. ”Conversn therapy, also known as reparative or ex-gay therapy, has been wily discreded as uhil and effective but persists many parts of the untry, ually through church, and is a battleground issue for gay rights mpaigners and those who argue that banng would curtail relig some nservativ seek to ph back agast recent advanc rights for gay and transgenr people, a move is unr way to add an implicly pro-nversn therapy plank to the Republin party platform that will be approved at s nventn Cleveland next Christopher, the Texas-born thor of Hidg om Myself, a memoir about his experience wh nversn therapy, said the GOP’s platform plans are “very troublg.

I thk ’s a backlash om gay marriage and gay rights and gay equaly, they’re really doublg down and the ‘ex-gay’ platform is one of their ways of rollg back, ” he said.

Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/RtersLast month a California urt heard a challenge om a mister to the state’s first--the-natn ban (enacted 2012 and effective 2014) on licensed therapists attemptg to change the sexual orientatn of practice gaed h attentn June when a GoFundMe page was set up to raise legal fe to extrite Sarah, a 17-year-old, om a “pray away the gay” mp east Texas where she was allegedly sent by her parents agast her “Save Sarah” mpaign raised $64, 218. It really do take a toll on you, ” he rells a boot-mp type weekend at a retreat about an hour om Dallas where participants unrwent tense physil activy, “then they really try to break you down emotnally, ” that was particularly tough and ed him to qutn not only whether he uld change, but whether he should want bizarre and paful experienc turned him away om the procs, he said, as did beg iends wh a gay man who was happy after takg the ntrastg path of g out and acceptg his a relig hoehold, Sean Sala, 31, said he was his late teens when he went to Livg Hope, an “ex-gay” mistry the Dallas regn then affiliated wh Exod Internatnal, a work which shut down 2013 and apologised for directg “years of undue judgment” at the gay muny.

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

”Ricky Chelette is executive director of Livg Hope, which scrib self as offerg “support and rourc for leavg homosexualy”. ”Asked if he believed some of the people he has worked wh have changed om beg gay to straight, Chelette said: “If you mean by ‘straight’ they’re no longer dog the gay practic that they may have been dog before as hookg up wh people or havg sex wh other people of the same genr, y, we’ve had people that have done that. “The practice is based on the false premise that beg lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr (‘LGBT’) is a mental illns or disorr ed by a velopmental ficiency, trma, and/or unmet emotnal needs, ” the plat stat.

Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty ImagLast year a group lled Jews Offerg New Alternativ for Healg was orred to pay $72, 400 damag to former clients after a New Jersey jury cid mted nsumer d when claimed gay people uld be “cured” through methods cludg tellg participants to beat an effigy of their mother wh a tennis racquet and strippg naked group ssns. In the face of growg opposn to the practice and recent advanc for LGBT rights, the Texas Republin party has reerated s support for nversn therapy and s opposn to gay Texas GOP signalled s backg for nversn therapy by scribg as legimate and efficient a plank of s 2014 platform and re-affirmg s latt manifto, adopted by party members lls for overturng last year’s US supreme urt cisn legalisg same-sex marriage natnwi and stat: “No laws or executive orrs shall be imposed to lim or rtrict accs to sexual orientatn change efforts for self-motivated youth and adults. ”It also says that “Homosexualy is a chosen behavr that is ntrary to the fundamental unchangg tths that has [sic] been ordaed by God the Bible, regnized by our natns [sic] founrs, and shared by the majory of Texans.

”Nbt believ that the massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub Florida last month adds urgency to efforts to end a practice found on the ia that beg gay is a form of sickns. The realy is that I’d known I was gay sce I was probably ten years old, ’s not somethg I chose, ’s not somethg that was veloped out of some terrible event my childhood, ’s jt another part of my personaly, jt another part of who I am. Camp New Grace is a "pray away the gay" mp outsi South Park that seeks to "cure" young homosexuals, based on the mistaken belief that homosexualy is a choice.

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

Stat, nversn therapy remas enmic many nservative, relig muni—and as Pray Away documents, is groundg a new generatn of believers s rhetoric as part of larger culture wars beg waged over gay and trans rights.

But many of the movement’s early lears and figureheads have sce rented; many s g out (or back out) as gay and speakg out about the harm they experienced—and that they ed. This was also a product of [his] havg grown up a homophobic and transphobic environment, both terms of the world he was raised , but also specifilly the relig worldview. And jt like much of male Christiany, Catholicism remas a homophobic and transphobic environment for many people.

KATY PERRY SAYS SHE TRIED TO 'PRAY THE GAY AWAY' AS AN ADOLCENT

Many of the subjects Pray Away discs their experience the ex-gay movement, at least retrospect, as not changg their sexualy as much as enuragg them to supprs . One thg I’ve learned om spendg time this world is, let’s say, [when you’re part of] a fah muny that’s homophobic or transphobic and you fd a Bible study group or a nversn therapy support group happeng at your church—that may actually be the first time you feel any fort, sharg any part of your inty. As well as tellg the stori of a number of the ex-gay movement’s former lears, Pray Away featur the activist Jefey McCall, who se himself as both an ex-gay and ex-trans dividual.

Do you see many parallels between the ex-gay and the transn movements, as well as the wir moral panic over trans people?

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

The anti-trans sentiment that we’re seeg build our world is fely a ntuatn of the ex-gay movement and the nversn therapy movement.

My uncle went through hell; I was very prepared to make a film about straight, homophobic people makg LGBTQ people hate themselv—but that’s not what I found. Our re creative team [workg on the documentary] was prised of people wh a direct relatnship to the issu: gay and trans nversn therapy survivors, queer people who grew up evangelil.

DON’T ‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ - WE’RE ‘BORN PERFECT’

Do you see the ex-gay movement as ever “dyg out, ” as Yvette Cantu Schneir, prevly an ex-gay lear and policy analyst wh the anti-gay Fay Rearch Council, puts at one pot? The reason the nversn therapy movement ntu is that is based on a larger culture of homophobia and transphobia.

The fact is that many church might stay they’re agast nversn therapy, but if a trans kid or a gay kid to their pastor, the silence n be afeng. Sam’s father attempted to “sre the gay away” through physil abe, but when that didn’t work, his parents allegedly sent the 10-year-old youngster to nversn therapy their home state of Kansas. The nversn therapist allegedly told Brton that the ernment “had e and killed off” all gay people bee they “brought AIDS to Ameri.

“Homosexualy is not a mental disorr, ” their fdgs stated, “and th is not somethg that needs to or n be ‘cured. Although Frd once wrote that homosexualy was “nothg to be ashamed of, ” he also argued that stemmed om a “certa arrt of sexual velopment. Brton said that nversn therapy clics spng up as a rult of the APA’s cisn to classify homosexualy as a mental illns 1973.

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

” He feared that Matthew would be bullied school, and that beg gay would affect his abily to get a job, have a fay, or lead a normal life. His father found a nversn therapist Manhattan who claimed that there’s no such thg as homosexualy and that what his son was experiencg uld be cured. In orr to create a narrative around childhood trma, many unselors effectively blame the parents of LGBT youth for “makg them gay.

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

The ordance, which passed unanimoly, f mental health centers $1, 000 on the first offense and $5, 000 on each addnal stance that they are ught ntug to practice “pray the gay away” methods. After a vio went viral of Shurka tailg the horror of “ex-gay” programs, he reached out to his former therapist to discs what happened to him.

As explored the documentary, barely any lears had any kd of trag psychology, unselg or human the scen, the film shows a symbtic fancial relatnship formed between select psychologists and the nversn therapy movement: Exod required credibily, and psychologists required se you missed:Matt Damon's e of a gay slur any ntext 2021 is unacceptable and embarrassgIn rearchg "Pray Away, " director Kriste Stolakis disvered "the vast majory of nversn therapy anizatns are actually n by LGBTQ folks who claim that they have changed themselv, " she tells USA TODAY.

In the same mographic, an timated 57, 000 youths will face nversn therapy om a relig adviser or pastoral film also featur a current lear of the nversn therapy movement, Jefey McCall, who found Freedom March, a lennial--driven "ex-gay" group. " An endg pot the film strik like lightng: As long as homophobia and transphobia exist more generally, nversn therapy won't vanish.