Do Petrera Is Back as Delightful Gay Jonah on 'Never Have I Ever'

Contents:

• DO PETRERA IS BACK AS DELIGHTFUL GAY JONAH ON NEVER HAVE I EVER
• ‘ANDI MACK’ ACTOR, WHOSE CHARACTER ME OUT AS GAY, OUT AS BISEXUAL
• JONAH, THE LARGT JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY ORGANIZATN, TAK S LAST BREATH
• IS JONAH HILL GAY? THE TTH ABOUT HOLLYWOOD’S MOST MYSTER STAR
• THE BIGGT JEWISH GAY “NVERSN THERAPY” ANIZATN HAS BEEN OPERATG SECRET AFTER US URTS SHUT DOWN
• THE SHOCKG COCINCE BETWEEN ‘22 JUMP STREET’ AND JONAH HILL’S GAY SLUR
• IS JONAH HILL GAY? IS THE COMEDIAN MARRIED?
• LANDMARK JONAH ‘GAY CONVERSN’ THERAPY CASE GO TO JURY
• JONAH GAY, JR
• JURY FDS EX-GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS GUILTY OF FRD LANDMARK DECISN
• JONAH CLARKE IS NOT GAY
• GAY MEN, MOMS SUE NJ JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS
• JONAH HER-KG’S AGE, HEIGHT, PARENTS, NET WORTH, GAY?

DO PETRERA IS BACK AS DELIGHTFUL GAY JONAH ON NEVER HAVE I EVER

I never saw that before on an actor, and sce I am-hearg impaired and wear them too, I reached out to Do Petrera, who plays Jonah, and wrote a lumn about our shared experienc of beg gay and not hearg very seri is back on Netflix startg today, and acrdg to early reviews, 's better than ever. ' It remd me of how matter-of-fact gay storyl are now, that 's not a big al if someone's gay, like ed to be.

"What is a big al this show is the fact that there are multiple gay characters, along wh a very diverse st. Gay adult performer Jonah Wheeler began his reer durg the panmic and has quickly bee a sought after entertaer by llaborators and studs alike.

‘ANDI MACK’ ACTOR, WHOSE CHARACTER ME OUT AS GAY, OUT AS BISEXUAL

A 17-year-old -star of the jt end, ma--Utah seri “Andi Mack” has e out as bisexual — almost two years after the character he played me out as gay.

JONAH, THE LARGT JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY ORGANIZATN, TAK S LAST BREATH

“I suffered wh some level of my own ternalized homophobia even while playg the first openly gay character on Disney Channel, ” he Season 2 of “Andi Mack, ” Rh’s character, Cys, had a csh on another boy and me out to his iends.

IS JONAH HILL GAY? THE TTH ABOUT HOLLYWOOD’S MOST MYSTER STAR

The goal of that unselg was to turn Unger om gay to and all the people that Jersey Cy, New Jersey, urtroom were not shocked by what they were seeg, but they were clearly perplexed. Dpe that th rume, Arthur Goldberg, the man who started and still ns JONAH, often boasted that Downg was "an expert the field" of turng gay men straight. Like many nversn therapists, Downg claims he has been "cured" of homosexualy, or, the jargon preferred by the dtry, he has "overe" his "unwanted SSA, " same-sex attractn.

Benjy Unger, now 28, was told to cut off ntact wh his mother while he was JONAH's gay nversn therapy, bee Alan Downg emed their relatnship "too close. When Dielli joed the Southern Poverty Law Center om a high-powered rporate law firm, he knew he would be workg to end gay nversn therapy—one of the firm's stated goals—but he had no ia how shoddy and sordid the practice was. Goldberg says he beme terted gay nversn therapy the late 1990s, while his son was "stgglg wh homosexualy.

Exod Internatnal, the largt nversn therapy umbrella group, had opened hundreds of what they lled "ex-gay" mistri across the U.

THE BIGGT JEWISH GAY “NVERSN THERAPY” ANIZATN HAS BEEN OPERATG SECRET AFTER US URTS SHUT DOWN

He reached out to the Natnal Associatn for Rearch & Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), an ex-gay anizatn (he would later serve on s board). (The acronym origally stood for Jews Offerg New Alternativ to Homosexualy; the last word has sce been swched out for "Healg. Goldberg" emails to clients and their parents, as well as on the promotnal webse for his 2009 book, Light the Closet: Torah, Homosexualy, and the Power to Change.

Berk regularly rpond to the men, issug remrs of the ramifitns of what she lled "the gay athstyle": AIDS, bowel disease, early ath, and, as she put one email, "liv based on soul-numbg promiscuy. Its succs was due, large part, to the fact that the Jewish muni tered to believed that gay inty was simply a set of behavrs that uld be changed. Likewise, Ultra-orthodox Jews see the recent era of gay rights as part of a broad tegory of secular fluenc actively rejects.

THE SHOCKG COCINCE BETWEEN ‘22 JUMP STREET’ AND JONAH HILL’S GAY SLUR

He was there for a theraptic weekend retreat remend by Goldberg, where he would beg to rega his manhood—a key step turng om gay to retreats were n by People Can Change (PCC), a nversn anizatn found by Rich Wyler, a Mormon who says he's "ex-gay. Downg attend the first one that year, while he was ex-gay therapy wh David Mathon, founr of The Center for Genr Wholens, a Mormon nversn therapy group that had an office JONAH's buildg Jersey Cy. In gay nversn therapy, sexual attractn is never jt sexual attractn; there mt be some sublimated drive, fic or trma to be alt Lev and Unger attend PCC's entry-level weekend: Journey Into Manhood.

That's how long would take for JONAH's program to turn him om gay to straight, if he jt put the work. " It meant cuddlg wh men, often olr, ex-gay men, wh lights dimmed and "How Could Anyone" playg over and over. The psdo-profsnal language Goldberg and Downg ed mirrored that of the ex-gay therapy muny worldwi, an ternnected world where people, many whout psychology gre, wre books that borrow the language of psychology but none of s rigor, and tend to mostly ce one another, Dielli says.

Dozens of books wh tl like Growg to Manhood and Healg Homosexualy are available onle, and JONAH tailored the notns laid out the books for their Jewish clientele: As part of the "genr-affirmg" therapy, Unger says Downg told him to go to the rual Jewish bath, the mikvah, wh his father as much as possible "and to jt stare at his penis. " The big reveal began 2010, when Wayne Ben, a gay rights activist who ns the nonprof Tth Ws Out, shot a vio of Unger and Lev talkg about their therapy ssns wh Downg.

IS JONAH HILL GAY? IS THE COMEDIAN MARRIED?

In , Lev proudly announced he was gay, and cricized the Orthodox muny for buyg to " the worst kd of ratnalized homophobia " by sendg their children to therapy like that offered by 2012, Sam Wolfe, a senr staff attorney at the SPLC, met Lev at an Exod Internatnal nference for ex-gay practners and patients, where he was prottg. It clud Stt McCoy, the first openly gay state senator Utah, and several other openly gay men, among them Dielli and Wolfe.

They ntend that by tellg s clients homosexualy was a disorr, and takg their money to perform a cure, JONAH was dg ctomers. Legally, you n't claim to fix what isn't broken, and homosexualy was removed om the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's list of disorrs 1973. There is no plete tally of nversn therapy outfs, but several stutns ntue operatn, like Joseph Nilosi's Thomas Aquas Psychologil Clic Enco, California, and Dert Stream, a Christian ex-gay mistry wh chapters across the untry.

(Bariso led their ttimony admissible, bee, he wrote, "the theory that homosexualy is a disorr is not novel but—like the notn that the earth is flat and the sun revolv around —stead is outdated and refuted. ")One of Wyler's major plats is that the platiffs and the urt misterpreted the weekends he still aniz eight tim a year: "Why is that our homoerotic culture we' so any male touch is now sexual? But he still liv heavily ultra-Orthodox Crown Heights, and has no problem wh puttg on a yarmulke now and aga; he's tryg to normalize beg gay Crown Heights—walkg through the neighborhood on the Sabbath wh his head unvered would only alienate his neighbors.

LANDMARK JONAH ‘GAY CONVERSN’ THERAPY CASE GO TO JURY

He spects some his muny still ll him "faygeleh, " the yiddish lloquialism for "faggot, " behd his back, but he's seeg small chang Crown Heights; a Hasidic synagogue there asked him to help anize a panel for January on how to better engage gay walk past his childhood yhiva, and past the stately brick apartment buildg where his once lived. I know a lot of people head non him beg gay, but I wanted to know if I’ve been terpretg the text the same way other people have.

JONAH GAY, JR

In 2015, Chaim Lev thought his long legal nightmare was was one of several young men who succsfully sued JONAH that year, the only Jewish gay-nversn therapy anizatn the US. JONAH (an acronym for Jews Offerg New Alternativ for Healg, and formerly for Jews Offerg New Alternativ to Homosexualy) operated out of an office Jersey Cy, New Jersey. They were also brought to mp-like retreats the woods, where they were told to shower naked together, wear bldfolds while others shouted scripted ephets at them, and recreate their own births by wrigglg out of swaddlg blankets, Amerin Psychologil Associatn, Amerin Medil Associatn, the Amerin Amy of Pediatrics, and virtually all other major US health-profsnal groups say gay nversn therapy is psychologilly harmful and effective.

”The current JIFGA webse clus a page tled “Fundg Moraly, ” which says the anizatn advot for a “Juo-Christian worldview, ” which prohibs “sexual viatns, ” cludg homosexualy. In s March motn (pdf), the SPLC noted that the se also lked to a crowdfundg page for a documentary about Joseph Nilosi, the ceased founr of a Christian ex-gay mistry wh chapters across the untry; Earlier this week, the page said was “unr nstctn, ” at the time of publitn appears to have been taken down Goldberg and Berk are found vlatn of the origal orr, they would owe the platiffs $3. A trial New Jersey this week will terme whether tellg gay people that they n bee straight nstut nsumer d.

The lg might mean the end of so-lled “nversn therapi” for Grdano / The AtlanticFor 17-year-old Chaim Lev, spair me the form of a persistent attractn to men—largely bee his Orthodox Jewish muny rejected homosexualy. The se is beg brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama-based civil-rights group, which is argug that JONAH-style treatment—and other “gay nversn therapi” like —amount to nsumer d. ”SPLC lawyers hope that if they prevail, their victory will spur other stat to crack down on gay-nversn therapi of all kds for patients of all ag.

JURY FDS EX-GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS GUILTY OF FRD LANDMARK DECISN

For some gay people, “their inty their relig fah is more important to them than their putative sexual inty, and that's a choice that people are entled to make. * * *One reason nversn therapy still exists, even a time of tremendo progrs for gay rights, is that the roots of sexual orientatn—and of sexual sire general—have proved vilishly difficult to unver clilly.

JONAH CLARKE IS NOT GAY

Lendg some crence to the ia that people are “born this way, ” Harvard nroscientist Simon LeVay found that a regn of the bra lled the INAH-3, which helps to regulate sexual behavr, tends to be much larger straight men than gay men. But as LeVay told Salon recently, “beg gay or lbian is not an isolated tra, but part of a package of genred tras that go together. (Ined, a New Jersey Superr Court judge has already granted the SPLC one victory, lg that is dulent to say that homosexualy is a disorr.

GAY MEN, MOMS SUE NJ JEWISH GAY CONVERSN THERAPISTS

In studi, straight women tend to get turned on by nu imag of other women, and though men’s physlogil aroal tends to more closely match their profsed sexual preference, at least a small percentage of straight men watch gay porn. ”Doctors’ groups have said repeatedly that nversn therapi don’t work—and that ’s rare for people to bee ex-gay. ”The SPLC plat, meanwhile, alleg that the JONAH -founr Arthur Goldberg told one of the platiffs, Benjam Unger, that “change is absolutely possible, ” and that Unger uld sentially stop beg gay wh two to four, some people do experience sexual-orientatn fluidy—a fdg based largely on studi of women who have oscillated om lbian to bisexual to straight—and some nversn therapists e this ia to bolster their claim that treatments n work for those who want to change.

JONAH HER-KG’S AGE, HEIGHT, PARENTS, NET WORTH, GAY?

” They also argue that JONAH’s views on the changeabily and of homosexualy are jt opns, and differenc of opn n’t be the basis for a d the fact that some peopl’ sexual preference fluctuat, mental-health profsnals say, is not the pot: People who seek out nversn therapy often do bee of extreme stigma their muni, and not bee of some trsic sire to be straight.

Both are practicg Jews who have gay adult chose the name JONAH, urt documents say, “ reference to the Jewish Prophet Jonah om Gath-Heper Israel, who was sent by God to preach to the non-Israel Neveh; the people repented and changed their ways, and the cy was saved om stctn.