Is It Possible to Pray the Gay Away? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• 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?
• IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?
• NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' LOOKS BEHD THE CURTA OF THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT
• PRAY AWAY: THE HARROWG TE STORY OF THE "EX-GAY" MUNY THE FILM
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• ‘PRAY AWAY’ REVIEW: ATONG FOR AN ANTI-GAY STANCE
• CAN CATHOLICS “PRAY AWAY THE GAY?”

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.

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

In fact, they uldn't fd any trma to blame Sam's homosexualy on at all.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?

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.

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

"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 HARROWG TE STORY OF THE "EX-GAY" MUNY THE FILM

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

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? 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.

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

From some gay muni, I'm attacked as beg Christian. 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'.

CAN CATHOLICS “PRAY AWAY THE GAY?”

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 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.