Pray away the gay camp
Netflix’s Pray Away shows us the horrors of religious conversion practices - here’s why we ask for a ban without exceptions
Netflix’s new documentary Pray Away follows the efforts of Exodus, a religious group who told Homosexual members – and their families – that they could change who they were.
This important film follows survivors and former leaders of the group, many of whom have now renounced the ‘church’.
While it can be easy to think of conversion practices as something of the past, they can – and do – still happen to lesbian, queer , bi, trans, queer, intersex and ace people across the United Kingdom today.
So, what actually are conversion practices?
Conversion practices are any intervention that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender culture. Conversion practices work towards one goal, and that goal is to ‘cure’ someone from being sapphic, gay, bi, trans, ace, intersex and/or queer.
Conversion practices are one-directional: the intention is to get a person to change or cancel their sexual orientation or gender identity. This is the opposite of appropriate, affirming and fit therapy or counselling, which will support an
Friday, November 8, 2019 - 7:30pm
Saturday, November 9, 2019 - 7:30pm
Sunday, November 10, 2019 - 2:00pm
Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 7:30pm
Friday, November 15, 2019 - 7:30pm
Saturday, November 16, 2019 - 7:30pm
Sunday, November 17, 2019 - 2:00pm
Friday, November 22, 2019 - 7:30pm
Saturday, November 23, 2019 - 7:30pm
Sunday, November 24, 2019 - 2:00pm
Advance Reserved Seating Tickets: $24 1st Section; $20 2nd Section; $13 3rd Section + applicable fees.
The first two rows of seats are removed to accommodate the thrust stage. The front section house left is held for the orchestra.
Theater Arts Guild presents the world premiere of Pray the Gay Away ®, a serious musical comedy. This highly anticipated and controversial live stage show packs plenty of blissful sacrilege and politically incorrect mischief into a reflection of U.S. tradition that is humorous, pretty, shocking, sweet, thought-provoking and incredibly heart-breaking.
Pray the Lgbtq+ Away takes place in 1980’s Minnetonka, Minnesota and shows the collision course of two boys being subjected to the controversial train of gay conversion therapy, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod statem
Seven survivors of conversion practices describe its long-lasting, damaging impact
‘Whenever I remembered the treatment I’d had, I would initiate physically shaking,’ – survivors of conversion practices give their experiences.
Shockingly, conversion practices remain legal in the UK. And while this remains the case, LGBTQ+ people are at risk of harm. According to the Government's LGBT Survey, 7% of LGBT+ people contain been offered conversion therapy, rising to 13% of trans people and 10% of asexual people.
Behind those cold numbers are true people – many of whom still carry with them the long-lasting feeling scars of being made to feel broken. Of being told that who they are is untrue, and that they demand to be ‘fixed’ or ‘cured’.
Below, seven survivors split their harrowing experiences of this degrading practice – and the lasting break it has had on them.
1. “The guilt around my sexuality is difficult to shake.”
‘I went into total denial about my sexuality and embraced the idea that I had been “cured”. At the same time, my mental health bombed and my self-harm increased dramatically. In 2009, I tried to kill myself.
“It was only last year, aged 38, I final
Michele Bachmann Clinic: Where You Can Pray Away the Gay?
July 11, 2011 — -- A former patient who sought help from the Christian counseling clinic owned by GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, told ABC News he was advised that prayer could rid him of his homosexual urges and he could eventually be "re-oriented."
"[One counselor's] path for my therapy would be to read the Bible, pray to God that I would no longer be gay," said Andrew Ramirez, who was 17-years-old at the time he sought help from Bachmann & Associates in suburban Minneapolis in 2004. "And God would forgive me if I were straight."
In the past, Marcus Bachmann has disputed the clinic has treated gay patients this way. But Ramirez's account, which was first reported by The Nation, is similar to the counseling session that appears on new undercover video shot by a homosexual rights advocacy group last month. That footage shows another counselor at the Bachmann clinic telling a gay man posing as a patient that, with prayer and effort, he could eventually learn to be attracted to women and rid himself of his gay urges.
Watch the full repo .