The history of horror is gay | What to Watch

Contents:

• A SURVIVOR OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY SHAR HIS CHILLG STORY
• TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS
• I WAS TORTURED GAY CONVERSN THERAPY. AND IT’S STILL LEGAL 41 STAT.
• GAY MORMON TEEN CHRONICL NIGHTMARE OF NVERSN THERAPY “SAVG ALEX”
• GAY AND TRANS PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN TO CONVERSN THERAPY ARE SHARG THEIR TRMATIC STORI, AND IT'S A REMR WHY IT NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED
• I TRIED GAY NVERSN THERAPY AND WAS MY OWN HORROR FILM
• WHAT HAPPENS GAY NVERSN THERAPY? 'CAMERON POST,' 'BOY ERASED' SHOW SRY REALY
• WHAT IT’S LIKE TO EXPERIENCE GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• 8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• NETFLIX FANS HORRIFIED AS RYAN MURPHY DROPS FIRST TRAILER FOR HARROWG GAY NVERSN THERAPY DOCUMENTARY
• THE HISTORY OF HORROR IS GAY
• GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
• NETFLIX’S ‘PRAY AWAY’ DOCUMENTARY WILL REMD YOU THAT GAY CONVERSN IS STILL GOG ON
• MY HELLISH YOUTH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY AND HOW I GOT OUT

A SURVIVOR OF GAY CONVERSN THERAPY SHAR HIS CHILLG STORY

While certa therapi, like talk therapy, are also legimate forms of re for people who experience mental health problems, beg gay is, of urse, not a mental health, a 19-year-old gay man who spoke to The Huffgton Post anonymoly for this article orr to protect his safety, is a survivor of nversn therapy was subjected to nversn therapy 2012 when he was 15 years old after his parents disvered he was gay. Their goal was to get to hate ourselv for beg LGBTQ (most of were gay, but the entire spectm was reprented), and they knew what they were dog.... Robert Spzer, one of the most proment people who advoted for gay cur, actually apologized for his actns and the damage they flicted 2012.

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.

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.

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

”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 was told that my fah muny rejected my sexualy; that I was the abomatn we had heard about Sunday school; that I was the only gay person the world; that was evable I would get H. An even larger number of youth, an timated 57, 000 teenagers, will receive the treatment om a relig or spirual adviser before proment profsnal health associatn, cludg the Amerin Medil Associatn, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn and the Amerin Amy of Pediatrics, oppos the e of nversn therapy on youth, llg harmful and practice n be performed by a licensed therapist an office, a rrectnal-style mpground, by a parent ntuoly punishg a child for actg too feme or by a pastor who wants to pray the gay away.

While she stood there, her ptors would hurl sults at her like “dyke” and tell her she would never f to the Plan of Salvatn as a gay person. I was motivated by Bible College teachgs whose founr was secretly groomg and sexually harassg his younger youth mister and employee to a homosexual relatnship while teachg and preachg the 'Sun' of homosexualy. I went to a seri of speech geared toward the youth of the church where one speaker talked about how watchg porn would lead you down an evable path that ends by you beg a homosexual and then a child molter (which obvly isn't te).

I was told that sexualy was a s, specifilly, homosexualy was a s the same tegory as murr bee perverted the tools for the creatn and stctn of life. They believed and tght that homosexuals were scum for beg so selfish and so nceed to thk they had the right to steal the nocence of someone else by makg them go to hell. My parents thought was fe that I was gay (my mom more so than my dad) and didn't want to take me to a Christian unselor, but I was adamant.

I WAS TORTURED GAY CONVERSN THERAPY. AND IT’S STILL LEGAL 41 STAT.

His procs was based on the ia that I was gay bee my relatnship wh my dad was aquate and bee I hadn't been affirmed my masculy when I was younger. And fally, "I went to a 'special psychologist' or 'psychiatrist, ' but he was a 'former gay man' who had sce turned his life over to God.

I was mostly dog this to appease my parents, as they were unr the imprsn beg gay (well, bisexual my se) was a choice, and that I uld change if I wanted to. The Mistn of Cameron Post, a movg new film based on the story of a teenage girl sent to a “gay nversn” summer mp to “pray away the gay” took me right back to a small Colorado town 2014.

Cameron is sent away by her horrified parents to God’s Promise, a Christian mp that aims to doctrate young people wh the belief that homosexualy is a s and that sners n be healed wh the help of has said terviews that her preparatns for the role of Cameron Post, she met young people who had been through nversn therapy. But after five years of exorcisms, reparative therapy and many hours at the altar, Christe accepted she was not gog to change; havg met other “survivors” of the ex-gay movement, she me out of the closet once aga. But at no time was suggted that I should accs unsellg that would make me feel better about beg gay, or even refer me to one of the UK’s many gay-iendly ernment has pledged to ban nversn therapy the UK, but is growg populary Ai, South Ameri and Asia, the regns where beg gay is massively stigmatised and/or crimalised.

GAY MORMON TEEN CHRONICL NIGHTMARE OF NVERSN THERAPY “SAVG ALEX”

LONDON (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - When Mike Dorn told his parents he was gay, aged 15, they tried to make him straight by sendg him to a Christian mp California for three months, where he was told he would go to hell, forced to dig hol and shoved if he disobeyed ’s trma me to the surface when he was nfed to his home for weeks durg a COVID-19 lockdown the Uned Stat June and he cid to share his story on TikTok.

Stat after Virgia banned 700, 000 Amerins have unrgone nversn therapy, half when unr 18, acrdg to the UCLA’s Williams Instute, which n range om unsellg and ‘prayg away the gay’ to electric shocks. MONSTERAfter her girliend broke up wh her, Merry blamed her anxiety about beg gay - which had ntributed to the relatnship’s failure - on a church unsellor’s efforts to make her straight when she was she took to TikTok, where she felt anonymo. ”One of her vios, “How to survive nversn therapy, part one”, has been watched more than 500, 000 tim sce December and she has received msag om about 50 teens at risk of nversn therapy and 20 survivors, om teens to late said a church unsellor forced her to put her hand a bowl of ice until melted while talkg about her “homosexual thoughts” - an aversn technique aimed at makg her associate attractn to women wh breakg pot me when Merry’s pastor told her to tell a younger teenage boy that beg gay would make him miserable.

GAY AND TRANS PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN TO CONVERSN THERAPY ARE SHARG THEIR TRMATIC STORI, AND IT'S A REMR WHY IT NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED

Merry said she ntacted child protectn servic who sent the girl to live wh other was also ntacted by a gay 18-year-old livg her town whose pastor was tryg to get him to supprs his attractn to gave the teenager support after each ssn wh the pastor and they now attend the same LGBT-iendly church. Gay nversn therapy is more than jt a "South Park" ntroversial practice – which emotnally abive, often extreme methods to "cure" people of their homosexualy – has been a subject for edic fodr the ribald animated seri, as well the 2000 film satire "But I'm a Cheerlear.

" But reparative therapy is still a ighteng realy for thoands of LGBTQ people, who often enter "ex-gay" programs at the sistence of pastors, unselors and loved on. More:$90K donated to send gay valedictorian to llege after parents reject himRelated:Chloë Grace Moretz go to gay nversn therapy  'Mistn'"Boy" stars Lus Hedg and is based on the 2016 memoir by Garrard Conley, who entered Love Actn, an ex-gay Christian mistry, after beg outed to his parents (played by Nile Kidman and Rsell Crowe) 2004 at age 19. ' For rearch, "Cameron Post" director Diree Akhavan and -wrer Cecilia Fgiuele terviewed survivors, watched sermons and read materials ed ex-gay programs.

I TRIED GAY NVERSN THERAPY AND WAS MY OWN HORROR FILM

Exod ternatnal ex-gay mistri are all about “helpg” people return to their God-given genr exprsn and, you know, back to heterosexual relatnships. In October, they both walked together their first pri para and Mom told me that durg a recent church event he spoke up agast homophobic ments ma by some ngregants. In keepg wh this analogy, would also say that there is somethg fundamentally wrong wh beg exprsed California’s SB 1172, which was signed to law 2012 and crimalized SOCE for mors, “Sexual orientatn change efforts pose cril health risks to lbian, gay, and bisexual people, cludg nfn, prsn, guilt, helplsns, hopelsns, shame, social whdrawal, suicidaly, substance abe, strs, disappotment, self-blame, creased self-teem and thenticy to others, creased self-hatred, hostily and blame toward parents, feelgs of anger and betrayal, loss of iends and potential romantic partners, problems sexual and emotnal timacy, sexual dysfunctn, high-risk sexual behavrs, a feelg of beg humanized and unte to self, a loss of fah, and a sense of havg wasted time and rourc.

WHAT HAPPENS GAY NVERSN THERAPY? 'CAMERON POST,' 'BOY ERASED' SHOW SRY REALY

Acrdg to Christopher Doyle, himself a former homosexual and today, a licensed therapist, “Dpe the claims of harm ced SB 1172, the Amerin Psychologil Associatn task force did not actually provi evince to back up the 28 health risks listed above. ”In short, while there is no doubt that some people have been hurt by SOCE, there is also no doubt that the harm has been fact, is the exaggerated charg, cludg shock treatment and torture mps (as if sadistic therapists try to torture gays to beg straight), that have been ed to crimalize SOCE efforts for mors other only so, but many people have been helped through noted by Brandon Showalter, “A new study is challengg the Amerin Psychologil Associatn's ntentn that therapi for unwanted same-sex attractn are harmful. 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.

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.

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO EXPERIENCE GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

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.

8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

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. 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.

NETFLIX FANS HORRIFIED AS RYAN MURPHY DROPS FIRST TRAILER FOR HARROWG GAY NVERSN THERAPY DOCUMENTARY

Pray Away follows the rise and fall of of Exod Internatnal, a group found the 1970s by five members of an evangelil church who said gay people n “pray away” their homosexualy to bee straight. Murphy - known for Amerin Horror Story, Pose and Glee - produced the powerful documentary alongsi Jason Blum and lifts the lid on the movement that sparked gay nversn therapy globally.

THE HISTORY OF HORROR IS GAY

Early reviews have heaped praise on the film wh the Hollywood Reporter scribg as a "soberg acunt of Christian terventn rooted toxic homophobia". Horat Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto om 1764 is largely accepted as the foundatnal example of gothic wrg, and ’s a story drippg wh homoeroticism. Other gothic thors like Matthew Lewis, William Thomas Beckford, and Francis Lathom were all homosexual, and their liv greatly impacted the lens through which they wrote their work.

GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS

The director of Universal’s Frankenste, Jam Whale, lived as an openly gay man throughout his reer, and livered the wrg of Bri of Frankenste’s Dr. Director Tod Browng has been scribed as an “alleged heterosexual, ” and both of his films Dracula and Freaks are drippg wh homosexual subtext. On the ntrary, those that refe to see a queer story unls featur a giant rotatg voice-over screamg “THIS IS GAY” jt prove that if someone has grown up always seeg themself and their stori reprented on screen, they’ve never had to velop the abily to headnon intifiable visibily.

When It: Chapter 2 me out 2019, I noted that I found funny that fans were discredg Richie Tozier’s gay subtext while stumed wearg the same shirt as Jse Nightmare on Elm Street 2. Their anger is clearly rooted the fear of enjoyg somethg that uld be perceived as gay—an immeasurably ironic realy and further proof as to why we ll homophobia. Robert Galbrah Heath, a psychiatrist New Orleans who pneered the technique, ed this form of bra stimulatn, along wh hired prostut and heterosexual pornography, to “change” the sexual orientatn of gay men.

An offshoot of the techniqu was “aversn therapy, ” which was found on the premise that if LGBTQ people beme disgted by homosexualy, they would no longer experience same-sex sire. ” LGBTQ people had long protted the cel and scientifilly dub forms of “treatment, ” but the ncept that homosexualy was a disease was accepted by the majory of the medil tablishment.

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

A patient unrgog electronvulsive therapy cir 1950sBut the 1960s and 1970s, as a vol gay rights movement took to the streets to mand equaly, the profsn began to turn s back on the ncept that people uld be “nverted” to heterosexualy. In 1973, the APA removed homosexualy om the DSM, s fluential manual of psychiatric disorrs, and medil profsnals began to distance themselv om techniqu they had once embraced.

Their methods varied, and clud everythg om talk therapy to “gay nversn” mps and nferenc, LGBTQ people were isolated om fay and iends, hypnotized, told to pray until their homosexualy subsid, stcted to beat effigi of their parents, mocked, ached on “proper” genr rol, and told their sexualy was unnatural and And Anne Plk, both 'formerly gay, ' pose wh their son, Timothy, a mpaign for Gay Conversn to the people who unrwent nversn therapy, shame and pa were an unniable part of the procs. “I read books and listened to dtap about how to have a ‘rrective and healg relatnship wh J Christ, ’” wr Jam Guay, a gay man who attend weekly therapy and nversn semars as a teen. And Exod Internatnal, an umbrella group that nnected var nversn therapy groups and gay mistry anizatns, closed down 2013 after nearly 40 years of operatns after s print, Alan Chambers, cid ’s impossible to change someone’s sexual orientatn.

“The practic have no basis science or medice and they will now be relegated to the dtb of quackery, ” said California ernor Jerry Brown as he signed a bill banng gay-to-straight therapy the state 2012. Acrdg to Casey Pick of The Trevor Project, 17% of LGBTQ youth report beg threatened wh or subjected to nversn movi have put a spotlight on the damagg effects of "reparative therapy, " cludg The Mistn of Cameron Post, the 2018 drama about a young woman attendg a Christian "ex-gay" mp; and Boy Erased, based on the memoir of Garrard Conley, the son of a Baptist pastor who went through the famo Love Actn program.

MY HELLISH YOUTH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY AND HOW I GOT OUT

The 2021 Netflix documentary Pray Away profiled former lears of Exod Internatnal, once the biggt nversn therapy anizatn worldwi, who now regret the sufferg they is the first to tackle the theme of gay and trans nversn therapy as a slasher film. Wh a st of LGBTQ actors, Logan (who's openly gay) nsulted wh executive producer Stt Turner Schofield to make sure the characters were reprented an clive way.

For s prr, doctors and medil profsnals had already been "treatg" gay and genr-nonnformg people through "rrective" vlence and surgery, meditn and electronvulsive shock treatment, among other typ of aversn therapy and psdoscientific characterizatn of homosexualy as a mental illns wasn't officially removed om the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs until the early 1970s, as picted the 2020 documentary Cured.