Conversion therapy documentary “Pray Away.” shows Julie Rodgers’ evolution from advocate to opponent – The Washington Post

Julie Rodgers was a “really good teenager,” she says, who wanted to please her family, friends and clergy. So she went for years to the conversion therapy that was meant to turn her straight. She became, first, a national speaker for a large Christian conversion group, then an outspoken advocate for celibacy. The baby-faced, smiley writer kept going in public, even as privately she began burning her arm regularly and then caring for the wounds in a desperate effort to soothe and console herself.