We talked to 8 survivors of gay nversn therapy about seeg their own experienc reflected onscreen Diree Akhvan’s new film The Mistn of Cameron Post, starrg Chloe Grace Moretz.
Contents:
- 'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS
- THE HISTORY OF GETTG THE GAY OUT
- GAY CONVERSN THERAPY IS STILL LEGAL 41 STAT
- GAY NVERSN THERAPY IS A DANGERO LIE THAT N LEAD TO PRSN AND ANXIETY. MORE THAN 700,000 LGBTQ PEOPLE HAVE GONE THROUGH ANYWAY.
- GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
- TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS
- 8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS
Although only a small mory of L.G.B.T. Catholics will ever seek nversn therapy, the assumptns unrlyg that therapy often fluence the msage many gay Catholics hear the nfsnal and om iends and mentors. * gay conversion camps in america *
” When he returned to the Catholic Church at age 36, his experience wh nversn therapy Pate said his Catholic therapist, like many who attempt to help patients change their sexual orientatn, believed that homosexualy was ed by childhood sexual abe or alienatn om one’s parents: what Mr. Catholics will ever seek nversn therapy, the assumptns unrlyg that therapy often fluence the msage many gay Catholics hear at home, the nfsnal and om iends and mentors. Brothers Road scrib self as “a non-prof, multi-fah, ternatnal fellowship primarily of men om bisexual or same-sex-attracted backgrounds who—for our own, eply personal reasons—typilly do not accept or intify wh the label ‘gay’ and prefer stead to explore and addrs unrlyg issu and embrace our thentic masculy.
THE HISTORY OF GETTG THE GAY OUT
It is dangero to be different. The mm recently llected materials to document gay-nversn therapy—and the objects allow curators like myself to explore how real people experience the risks. * gay conversion camps in america *
”Catholic InfluencThe Catholic media personaly Milo Yiannopoulos recently began llg himself “ex-gay” and announced plans to open a “reparative therapy” clic Florida. Fzgibbons -thored Homosexualy and Hope, a pamphlet published by the Catholic Medil Associatn, which advot theraptic “preventn and treatment” of same-sex attractn. Another Catholic, Joseph Nilosi, who died 2017, was a -founr of the Natnal Associatn for the Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy, a secular group formed 1992 that is now lled the Alliance for Theraptic Choice and Scientific Integry.
Nilosi said of young people experiencg same-sex attractn: “So when a 15-year-old boy go to a prit and says, ‘Father, I have the feelgs, I have the temptatns, ’ that prit should say, ‘You have a choice; if you don’t want to be gay, there are thgs that you n do. ” A group prottg the nference hung a banner on archdcan property that featured a quote attributed to the Dert Stream/Livg Waters founr, Andrew Comiskey, and that read part, “There is no such thg as a ‘gay’ is a popular myth.
The people I terviewed said Catholic stutns may not wily promote nversn therapy, but the msag gay believers hear Catholic spac help promote the ia that nversn is possible.
GAY CONVERSN THERAPY IS STILL LEGAL 41 STAT
Hope for Wholens, an “ex-gay” mistry wh a prence at least 15 stat, advoted “eedom om homosexualy through J Christ.” * gay conversion camps in america *
Many gay Catholics have heard, over and over, that nobody is “born gay”; that homosexualy is typilly ed by trma; that beg gay is a purely negative experience om which they have nothg to learn, and om which the broar church has nothg to learn. The specific theori and practic of nversn therapy draw on a ep well of silence and shame that affects all gay Catholics, cludg those who never step si a therapist’s office. Tristan did not thk of her sexualy as the only issue she was alg wh, but when she raised other ncerns, she said, her therapist seemed to thk beg gay was the central problem.
Bob, as we all lovgly ll him” as “an amazg, lovg man, ” who nohels nvced him of what he now se as “misrmatn” about the nature and orig of homosexualy, attributg a “homosexual clatn” to problems fay relatnships, sexual trma cludg e of pornography, the lack of a proper velopment of masculy and other “wounds”—ias he later heard om prits the Schuchts, thor of the upg book Be Rtored: Healg Our Sexual Wounds Through J’ Merciful Love, disagreed wh the labelg of his work as of “misrmatn, ” statg that all of the materials om the John Pl II Healg Center have approval om the lol bishop and his books have obtaed an imprimatur. ”As he began to leave nversn therapy behd, Kent read gay narrativ like The Velvet Rage: Overg the Pa of Growg Up Gay a Straight Man’s World, by the psychologist Alan Downs. 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.
GAY NVERSN THERAPY IS A DANGERO LIE THAT N LEAD TO PRSN AND ANXIETY. MORE THAN 700,000 LGBTQ PEOPLE HAVE GONE THROUGH ANYWAY.
ABC News' Brian Ross tak to plac that many claim no longer exist -- Christian mistri or mps where gay teens are sent by parents who want their children to change their sexualy. * gay conversion camps in america *
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.
The mm recently llected materials to document gay-nversn therapy (also lled "reparative therapy")—and the objects allow curators like myself to explore how real people experience the risks. Conley's memoir of his time there, Boy Erased, chronicl how the mp's nversn therapy followed the ia that beg gay was an addictn that uld be treated wh methods siar to those for abatg dg, alhol, gamblg, and other addictns.
Smid eventually left Love Actn and married a the Uned Stat, rpons to gay, homosexual, queer, lbian, bisexual, transsexual, and genr non-nformg inti have fluctuated om "Y! Lobotomy kniv of the sort ed to "treat" homosexualy the 1950s–1970sHomosexualy was nsired a psychiatric disorr until 1973, when was removed om the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM). Electromagic shock vice ed the late 1900sJt as relig nvictn and fah are part of some addictn programs, relig beliefs about sexualy and genr form the only remag jtifitns for "gay nversn.
GAY CONVERSN THERAPY’S DISTURBG 19TH-CENTURY ORIGS
For timat of the proportn of youth who intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual see Lra Kann et al., Sexual Inty, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Related Behavrs among Stunts Gras 9-12 – Uned Stat and Selected S, 2015 (2016). On Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr Issu, Posn Statement: Sexual Orientatn Change Efforts (SOCE) and Conversn Therapy wh Lbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals, and Transgenr Persons (2015), Release, Am. 6, 2018), Marketg, Virgia Electn Poll (May 26, 2017), poll052016/ Moore, Only 8% of Amerins Thk Gay Conversn Therapy Works,, June 12, 2014, news/2014/06/12/gay-nversn-therapy/ B.
The founr of one of the most proment gay nversn therapy programs the Uned Stat me out as gay last week, disavowg the practice that he dite his life Game, who led the fah-based nversn therapy program Hope for Wholens for two s, told The Post and Courier that the practice was a "lie, " "very harmful, " and "false advertisg. The practice of tryg to 'cure' homosexualy dat back more than a centuryConversn therapy dat back to at least the 1890s, when German psychiatrist Albert von Schrenck-Notzg said at a nference that he had succsfully turned a gay man straight through hypnosis, acrdg to the Southern Poverty Law Center. At the time, beg a same-sex relatnship was nsired crimal, and many doctors were lookg to ways to reverse doctors, like Atrian endocrologist Eugen Steach, led tticle transplantatn experienc which gay men were strated then given "heterosexual tticl" om other saw homosexualy as a mental disorr and began g psychiatric terventns an attempt to "cure" people wh genr inti and sexual orientatns different om what was seen as the norm.
TERRIFYG PHOTOS RECREATE THE HORRORS OF GAY 'CONVERSN THERAPY' CENTERS
This clud the e of lobotomi and aversn therapy, which doctors tried to make LGBTQ-intifyg people disgted by 1952, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy s Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM). But as gay rights anizatns and movements formed the Uned Stat durg the 1960s and 1970s, psychiatrists started to distance self om nversn 1973, the APA reversed the listg and removed homosexualy om the APA said a 2013 statement: "The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn do not believe that same-sex orientatn should or needs to be changed, and efforts to do so reprent a signifint risk of harm by subjectg dividuals to forms of treatment which have not been scientifilly validated and by unrmg self-teem when sexual orientatn fails to change.
Self-proclaimed "experts" and fah-based groups then started gettg volved gay-nversn therapy, lnchg mps and nferenc to "pray the gay away" through not only fah, but also exorcisms and emotnal and physil abe, and sexual vlence.
"While the therapy, also known as "reparative therapy, " has been rejected and nounced by mastream medil and mental health anizatns for s, the practice is still nducted across the Williams Instute at the Universy of California, Los Angel, said s 2018 study that more than 20, 000 LGBTQ youth will unrgo nversn therapy of some kd before they turn lears of proment nversn therapy groups are g out as gay and nouncg their practicA poll nducted by Public Policy Pollg March found that 80 percent of polled rponrs believed that nversn therapy on mors should be illegal. In July, Amazon pulled nversn therapy books off s webse after facg backlash om, too, removed an app that promoted nversn therapy, even former lears of the movement are speakg out, wh some g out as gay themselv. "He now ns a Christian fellowship group lled Grace Rivers, for LGBTQ-intifyg people who want a relatnship wh Mathon, once a proment Mormon nversn therapist wh the program Journey to Manhood, announced January that he had divorced his wife of 34 years to pursue life as a gay man.
8 PEOPLE ON SURVIVG GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
Mathon blamed the "shame-based, homophobic-based system" of the Mormon Church which he was raised, and acknowledged he hurt people through is therapy program, acrdg to NBC News. "In a study by San Francis State Universy, lbian, gay and bisexual youth who were rejected by their fai and regivers due to their inti were nearly six tim more likely to report high levels of prsn and more than eight tim more likely to have attempted suici when pared to youth om acceptg and affirmg fai and regivers, " the anizatn said.
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.