8 Gay Conversn Therapy Survivors on Cameron Post

Contents:

• WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• 'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS
• 8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS
• RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY
• MORE THAN 100 GAY MEN 'SENT TO PRISON MPS' CHECHNYA
• RSIA ‘HAS SECRETLY OPENED NAZI-STYLE PRISONS WHERE HUNDREDS OF GAY MEN ARE HELD AND SOME MURRED,’ LOL REPORTS CLAIM
• NOT THE ONN: MOSW BANS GAY PRI FOR NEXT 100 YEARS
• 5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP
• CLOSE THE GAY NCENTRATN MPS CHECHNYA RSIACLOSE THE GAY NCENTRATN MPS CHECHNYA RSIA
• RSIAN CONCENTRATN CAMPS: GAY MEN IMPRISONED AND TORTURED, THIS IS HOW YOU CAN HELP STOP THE ATROCI
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?

An onle edy seri highlighted the fact that the end of the war did not mean the end of persecutn for many gay German men.

Gay men rcerated Nazi ncentratn mps durg World War II were forced back to prison even after the Allied forc won that nflict.

COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'

"An timated 15, 000 gay people were rcerated Nazi ncentratn mps, " the post on the Lizzy The Lezzy page stated. The post was acpanied by a picture of a pk triangle -- the symbol officials Nazi Germany ed to intify and ostracize gay ncentratn mp prisoners -- and a quote drawn om the webse for The Pk Triangle of San Francis, an annual event rememberg those victimized unr Nazi le:. Between 1933 and 1945, an timated 100, 000 men were arrted for vlatg Nazi Germany's law agast homosexualy, and of the, approximately 50, 000 were sentenced to prison.

The men arrted for beg gay were targeted unr a revised versn of a 19th century statute, Paragraph 175, which was expand to tegorize homosexualy as a crime of "cency. And their alli feated the Nazi regime, the law remaed effect after World War II, as the Holot Memorial mm's exhib on the regime's anti-gay persecutn stat:.

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

Unr the Allied occupatn, some homosexuals were forced to serve out their terms of imprisonment regardls of time served the ncentratn mps.

The Nazi versn of Paragraph 175 remaed on the books of the Feral Republic of Germany (Wt Germany) until the law was revised 1969 to crimalize homosexual relatns between men over the age of 21. On 22 March 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her bet approved a bill that overturned nvictns for gay men which had rried out unr Paragraph 175 between 1949 and 1969 and also provid pensatn for survivg victims.

8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

The Nazi symbol for gay ncentratn mp prisoners has gone through a change of s own, as the Pk Triangle of San Francis's se stat:. The pk triangle symbol has sce evolved to an important remr for the gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr muny of the ntug homophobia and humany agast them and other reprsed mori around the world. Image source, The Greatt MenaceImage ptn, Cooma jail was once ed exclively to imprison gay menSet one of the lst and wdit small towns Atralia, Cooma prison holds a dark only was reopened 1957 wh the specific purpose of rceratg men for "homosexual offenc", was also said to be ed as a human ttg ground wh the ultimate goal of eraditg homosexualy om 's jail is believed to have been the only known homosexual prison the world, acrdg to a new now, even some prison staff say they didn't know the real reason gay prisoners were segregated Strzelecki, 66, started as a ctodial servic officer at the prison 1979, and later set up the Corrective Servic Mm Cooma.

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

We'd red stamp homosexual prisoners wh 'N/A': non-associatn wh mastream prisons, " he tells the BBC.

RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY

"You wouldn't bunk two together… that was one of our biggt problems - keepg an eye on them, " says Mr New, now source, Thomas McCoyImage ptn, L Strzelecki (left) worked at the jail before settg up the lol Corrective Servic MmHistoril documents suggt New South Wal (NSW) Jtice Mister Reg Downg took cred for tablishg the reportedly exprsed "pri" at his pet project, tellg the Sydney Morng Herald 1957: "Nowhere Europe or Ameri did I fd any prisons where homosexuals were separated om other prisoners. " A 1958 prs statement om Mr Downg nam Cooma prison as "the only penal stutn the world, so far as is known, voted specifilly to the tentn of homosexual offenrs". Prisoners at Cooma were rcerated for beg gay, or crim related to beg gay; homosexualy wasn't crimalised NSW until dranian state laws 1955 had cracked down on homosexualy.

"The legislative chang were very wi-rangg their asslt on the civil liberti of men thought to have homoerotic sir. Attempted buggery rried five years, and a harsher crackdown, a clse was add statg "wh or whout the nsent of such person" source, State Library of NSWImage ptn, Reg Downg exprsed pri separatg gay prisoners om othersBoth Mr Wotherspoon and the podst ce evince of police actg as "agents provotrs" to ce men to m homosexual acts. "They'd e hunky policemen to entrap gay men by enticg them to have sex, ually public toilets, " Mr Wotherspoon 1958, the NSW ernment announced a mtee of quiry to the "e and treatment of homosexualy".

MORE THAN 100 GAY MEN 'SENT TO PRISON MPS' CHECHNYA

It nam Cooma prison as "a special stutn for nvicted homosexual offenrs" which will "facilate the vtigatn" a "scientific evaluatn of the problem and possible solutn" has been found, Mr Downg is quoted as sayg, "the ernment nsirs that the problem mt be attacked wh vigour". ' and nclud that 'overmotherg' was "a major e of homosexualy, " says podst creator and journalist Patrick Abboud, who has spent years rearchg the prison.

"We know they failed their missn to eradite homosexualy bee our podst reveals gay men havg ongog relatnships the prison. "The elive report has never been found - somethg Mr Abboud says amounts to a "ver up" source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Cooma is a town of about 7, 000 peopleIt's unclear when homosexual prisoners were no longer sent to Cooma.

Corrective Servic NSW and the NSW Department of Communi and Jtice cled to ment on the allegatns, cg their "historil nature" Abboud believ gay prisoners may have been sent there until the early 1980s, cg a 1982 statement om the rrective servic mister claimg the policy still stood. Sex offenrs were also sent to Cooma and this further stigmatised gay prisoners, says Mr Wotherspoon says, wh recent parliamentary bate of a Relig Discrimatn Bill threateng to allow discrimatn based on sexual orientatn, such recent history rri a soberg warng. You may also be terted :Media ptn, How Atralia's first gay imam is 'savg liv'.

RSIA ‘HAS SECRETLY OPENED NAZI-STYLE PRISONS WHERE HUNDREDS OF GAY MEN ARE HELD AND SOME MURRED,’ LOL REPORTS CLAIM

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.

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. 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.

NOT THE ONN: MOSW BANS GAY PRI FOR NEXT 100 YEARS

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.

5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP

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. 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 .

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. For one of my class I had to wre a paper talkg about why I was gog to Hell for beg gay. 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. 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.

CLOSE THE GAY NCENTRATN MPS CHECHNYA RSIACLOSE THE GAY NCENTRATN MPS CHECHNYA RSIA

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. 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. 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.

RSIAN CONCENTRATN CAMPS: GAY MEN IMPRISONED AND TORTURED, THIS IS HOW YOU CAN HELP STOP THE ATROCI

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. 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.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

”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?