Gay Conversn Therapy's Disturbg 19th-Century Origs | HISTORY

Contents:

• TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS
• 'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• CONVERSN THERAPY ANIZATN FOUNR OUT AS GAY: 'PLEASE FIVE ME'
• 8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
• ‘THEY/THEM’ FILM REVIEW: SHARP SCRIPT GIV BE TO GAY-CONVERSN CAMP HORROR STORY
• KEV BAN RUNS A KILLER GAY CONVERSN CAMP NEW TRAILER FOR BLUMHOE SLASHER PIC ‘THEY/THEM’
• HOW TO SURVIVE A SUMMER AT GAY NVERSN MP
• DISNEY OPENS NEW IMMERSIVE ‘STAR WARS’-THEMED GAY CONVERSN CAMP

TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS

A new llectn of photos is providg a strikg ― and horrifyg ― visual recreatn of the barbaric practice of gay “nversn therapy” and the impact has on s victims. Photographer Paola Pares first learned of the “Clis Dhomosexualizacn” her home untry of Ecuador four years ago om a iend. After pletg a project lled “Unveiled” that documented her own g out procs ― cludg filmg herself wh three meras as she me out to her parents ― Pares cid the foc of her next work would be on the gay “nversn therapy” clics.

We want to sign an tnal mpaign that centers around teachg people about homosexually, LGBT rights, genr inty and human rights.

”Check out more imag om “Until You Change” throughout this article and learn more about the photographer’s relatnship wh the victims of the gay “nversn therapy” clics and what she hop the impact of this project will be by readg our terview wh Pares Pares PhotographyHuffPost: What spired the project? ” I sat my parents down for a nversatn and told them I was gay ont of three meras – a pletely surreal and liberatg experience. From “Unveiled” I had a lot of gay men and women ntact me around the world to thank me for sharg such an timate moment wh the world.

'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS

But sce the people nsir homosexualy a disease, they treat as an addictn.

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

The laws prohib that the clics treat homosexuals. The movie is set 1993, but jt bee tak place 25 years ago do not mean that so-lled "gay nversn" mps don't still exist today.

CONVERSN THERAPY ANIZATN FOUNR OUT AS GAY: 'PLEASE FIVE ME'

They do, they jt might be harr to the film, Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) is forced to go to God's Promise, a Christian mp that tri to "turn" gay teens straight.

In the trailer, Cameron is told, "The first step is for you to stop thkg of yourself as a homosexual, " to which she repli, "But I don't thk of myself as a homosexual. Stark was a teen boy who gaed attentn 2005 after he posted about his fay planng to send him to "a fundamentalist Christian program for gays" on "gay nversn" — be through a mp or otherwise — still exists today.

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.

8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

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. The man who found Hope for Wholens, one of the most proment nversn therapy groups the Uned Stat, has e out as Game, the founr of the South Carola-based nversn therapy mistry Hope for Wholens, me out as gay this summer, nearly two years after beg fired om the anizatn he said an terview wh The Post and Courier published Friday that his anizatn, found nearly 20 years ago, "harmed generatns of people.

“Conversn therapy is not jt a lie, but ’s very harmful, ” Game told The Post and, now 51, is one of several former nversn therapy advot who have e out as LGBTQ and nmned the practice of nversn than a dozen stat have banned gay nversn therapy, which seeks to change a person's sexual orientatn or genr inty. Also known as “reparative” or “ex-gay” therapy, the programs e var forms of psychologil manipulatn, and sometim physil abe, to nont “same-sex attractns, ” or “SSA’s.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS

Diree Akhvan’s The Mistn of Cameron Post (adapted om the novel by Ey Danforth), out now, follows a young gay woman named Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) who is sent away to a gay nversn mp the mid-1990s, where the close iendships she forms wh the other participants serve as a rpe om the ongog psychologil torments flicted upon her. There was one really abive act, where three misters held me down for six and a half hours and were screamg my face, tryg to get the gayns out of me. I asked them, “Do this mean that I’m not gog to be gay anymore?

Well, there is this thg lled gaydar …” — some parts of the church believe gaydar is the abily to see a mon another person.

Like the movie, there’s this whole iceberg scene [about disverg the “” of one’s homosexualy] and the girl the movie mocked . There was really not much worse than beg gay. So, the day after I’d go to [nversn therapy] I’d bury myself the perdil sectn of the library and read articl about homosexualy and the more of those articl that I read, the broar perspective that I got.

‘THEY/THEM’ FILM REVIEW: SHARP SCRIPT GIV BE TO GAY-CONVERSN CAMP HORROR STORY

For one of my class I had to wre a paper talkg about why I was gog to Hell for beg gay. I was g terms like “SSA” and not llg myself gay for a very long time. I gus now I intify as gay, and I fely believe there’s no changg that, and even if there was I don’t know that you should.

When I started realizg that I was gay, I officially me out and was still tryg to change at 15.

KEV BAN RUNS A KILLER GAY CONVERSN CAMP NEW TRAILER FOR BLUMHOE SLASHER PIC ‘THEY/THEM’

From basilly about 12 to 21 I was dog some variatn of “prayg the gay away. I had been raised to believe that beg gay is horrible and terrible and awful and sful, and you’re gog to go to Hell.

But also I was gay.

HOW TO SURVIVE A SUMMER AT GAY NVERSN MP

The gay part of my life is great. We watch gay movi together and all that jazz. And of urse that marriage got dicey — I end up ex-gay therapy at the referral of a pastor at about the age of 37, 38.

DISNEY OPENS NEW IMMERSIVE ‘STAR WARS’-THEMED GAY CONVERSN CAMP

By then I had stopped seeg myself as “unwanted same-sex attracted” and started seeg myself as more of what I would ll “gay si B, ” chaste and celibate. They have a hard time havg a gay dad, and I don’t have a lot of ntact wh their mom. The harst thg for me has been my son, my olr son, I believe he’s gay.

And to be good meant not to be gay. And I was really volved wh this anizatn, this ex-gay anizatn. They also had me start givg my ex-gay ttimony when I was 17.

For a while I intified as a gay Christian, but I was still such nservative circl that I sort of tried to do this thg that’s gag some tractn publicly where you acknowledge that you’re gay and Christian but you’re mted to lifelong celibacy and sglens. I was actually the first openly gay person hired by a Christian llege, to sort of work wh LGBT stunts there. It was sort of ial for them bee they uld hire a gay person but you uld still sign their statement of fah and muny venants.